In the News

Linda Burney, opposition human services spokeswoman, said the controversy over Centrelink's new automated debt recovery system had been going on for months.

"The concern about the program expressed by people to my and my colleagues' offices has been huge," she said. "I think there is a very clear case to suspend the automated data matching process until these issues are resolved. It isn't only unfair and cruel, it's poor public policy."

Staff of Beleaguered Centrelink will undergo Advanced Customer Aggression Training soon amid public backlash that the government agency is facing due to its contentious debt recovery regime.

In a contract tender that was made public before Christmas, the Department of Human Services said it was "seeking providers suitably qualified to deliver a high quality of Advanced Customer Aggression Training Services to the Department's Customer Facing Staff, Team Leaders and Managers."

As anyone who has ever tried to describe it knows, the Australian welfare system is exceedingly complex. Indeed, over the past three decades there have been repeated attempts to build computerised “expert systems” to help Centrelink staff get a clear understanding of exactly who is eligible for what. All attempts have failed. Tens of millions of dollars have been wasted on the futile effort to clearly define eligibility.
But the impossibility of accurately defining eligibility has not stopped the Turnbull government from using crude data matching to justify sending intimidating letters to large numbers of Australians, an estimated 20% of which are in error.

Centrelink’s debt recovery letters cast Australians as guilty before they can prove they are innocent, and have driven some to the brink of suicide, says independent MP Andrew Wilkie.

Centrelink's contentious debt recovery system is making some of the targeted people feel suicidal, independent MP Andrew Wilkie has claimed, as the furore over the clawback persists despite the government's insistence it is working exceptionally well.
The Tasmanian MP said the Commonwealth Ombudsman had agreed to his request to look into the matter.
VIDEO

The Commonwealth Ombudsman has been asked to investigate faults with Centrelink’s new automated data matching system that has resulted in welfare recipients being wrongly hounded to pay debts.
“I’ve had four people now approach me ... who I would describe as presenting as suicidal,” [Independent MP Andrew Wilkie] told reporters in Hobart.

A crackdown on Centrelink payments and the issuing of large debt notices to unsuspecting recipients was designed by a "dunderhead" and is leaving people "frightened," federal MP Andrew Wilkie says.

Independent MP Andrew Wilkie has criticised the Federal Government over Centrelink's new debt recovery system, saying it was designed by a "dunderhead".