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'No apology' from Barnaby Joyce as government doubles down on Centrelink debt clawback

6 January 2017
SMH

Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce has said the government makes "no apology" for pursuing people's debts as it continues to fend off anger surrounding Centrelink's troubled $4.5 billion debt recovery mission.
Mr Joyce - the most senior government figure to weigh into the furore so far - said that social security recipients who owe the government "are not criminals" but need to settle the debts in the interest of taxpayers.

Disability Sector Joins Calls for a Halt to Centrelink ‘Fiasco’

6 January 2017
Probono Australia

The Disabled People’s Organisations Australia, a collection of disability support and advocacy groups, has raised concerns the current debt recovery process, that uses automated data matching, is particularly unfair for people with disability.
It comes after Centrelink has come under fire for using data from the Australian Tax Office to check records about people’s income, without staff involvement or oversight.

Centrelink debt recovery: Labor calls on audit office to investigate controversial scheme

6 January 2017
ABC News

Labor has called on the National Audit Office to investigate Centrelink's controversial debt recovery scheme that has been criticised for mistakenly targeting vulnerable Australians.
The Government has defended the scheme — which cross references employment data from the Australian Tax Office and Centrelink — despite the Opposition claiming it was brutal and poorly designed.

What's The #Centrelinkfail All About?

6 January 2017
Law Radio

In this episode Melissa Castan and Kate Galloway have a conversation about what caught their attention over the holiday period – mainly the question of government power exercised through the Centrelink data matching debts controversy. They explore the manner that the debt notices or ‘inquiries’ have come about, the impacts upon Centrelink customers, and whether this use of big data is a glitch, a strategy or a government policy.
AUDIO

The Centrelink summer

6 January 2017
The Monthly

When not just the Courier-Mail, but also other News Limited publications and A Current Affair are criticising the government for being too harsh on social security recipients, perhaps it’s time the government acknowledged how dangerous this Centrelink issue has become, and responded.
[...]
The onus is on citizens to disprove the debt at short notice, over summer holidays, using materials such as pay slips and doctor’s certificates they were never previously asked to keep. Often it’s material they’d submitted to Centrelink previously. The system by which people must register their objections and responses is completely overloaded, with phone lines jammed and IT systems groaning or simply incapable of coping with the task at hand.

This Man Got A Centrelink Debt For A Time He Wasn't Even On Centrelink: More farcical cases of debt collection blunders.

6 January 2017
Huffington Post

Brett, from Sydney, was told by Centrelink on Thursday that he'd been overpaid and that he owed them $2360.06. They cited two periods in the past, one in 2013 and another from mid-2014 to mid-2015, when they claim he'd been working and therefore not entitled to benefits. The problem is, though, the 2013 period was before he'd ever even applied for Centrelink payments.

This Man Got A Centrelink Debt For A Time He Wasn't Even On Centrelink

6 January 2017
Huffington Post

Brett, from Sydney, was told by Centrelink on Thursday that he'd been overpaid and that he owed them $2360.06. They cited two periods in the past, one in 2013 and another from mid-2014 to mid-2015, when they claim he'd been working and therefore not entitled to benefits.
The problem is, though, the 2013 period was before he'd ever even applied for Centrelink payments.

Centrelink is referring some people distressed from its data-matching debt claims to Lifeline

6 January 2017
Business Insider Australia

Customers suffering distress and anxiety from debt notification letters sent out from Centrelink’s data-matching system are being referred to Lifeline by the federal welfare agency.
On Wednesday, independent MP Andrew Wilkie claimed that he had been in touch with people who were suicidal as a result of the allegedly false debt notices. He said that “the government has terrified countless people”.
Now social media records show that Centrelink’s official account has been advising multiple customers to get in touch with Lifeline in the midst of correspondence

Centrelink referring people to Lifeline as one person receives notice of 140k debt

6 January 2017
NITV

Centrelink has been openly referring to Lifeline people who say they have been targeted for repayments of non-existent debt under a new automated system.
NITV News has revealed that Indigenous Australians have been caught up in the growing debt claims issue. Some people attested they were receiving demands for repayments of more than $20,000, as Centrelink accused them of under reporting their income while receiving benefits.

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