Centrelink has removed advice telling welfare recipients they only needed to keep payslips for six months, which conflicted with the government’s efforts to claw back debts from up to six years ago.
Centrelink's controversial debt recovery system must be urgently suspended, according to the public sector union which has warned staff are already struggling to cope.
The CPSU says service standards have already dropped to “unacceptable levels” following thousands of job cuts in the Department of Human Services, and now the latest scandal is piling on more pressure.
The main public service union has warned Centrelink and Medicare staff are "desperately overstretched" and struggling to cope with the public backlash over a flawed debt recovery scheme.
The warning comes after the man hand-picked by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to lead digital projects said the public services needed "radical upskilling" to deliver services.
A social media campaign #notmydebt is sharing stories of individual’s debt letters and the effect it has had on them.
The public sector union is calling on the federal government to suspend its controversial Centrelink debt recovery system, warning the public will suffer as staff struggle to cope.
The CPSU says service standards have already dropped to unacceptable levels following thousands of job cuts in the Department of Human Services, with the latest scandal piling on more pressure.
Beleaguered Centrelink staff are bracing for a "perfect storm" of customer service problems in the coming weeks, heaping more misery on the welfare agency's millions of clients, according to the main workplace union.
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The union says its members working on the controversial debt recovery scheme are reporting that nearly all the debts they are being asked to review turn out be bogus with cases, such as a demand for $9000 from a client who really owed just $90, pointing to a complete system failure.
