Alan Tudge says he may attempt to change the law to ensure letters being sent by Centrelink’s controversial automated debt system are actually being received before a debt is imposed.
The human services minister, speaking with Guardian Australia on Wednesday, continued to defend the controversial debt recovery system, which has been the subject of repeated complaints accusing it of inaccuracy and unfairness.
But he said he was looking at changes to ensure initial letters demanding welfare recipients explain income discrepancies were actually being received before debts were imposed.
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“There’s a legal obligation to send that letter to their Centrelink address, but maybe there’s other ways as well, that we can, on top of sending that letter, other ways to ensure that they’re actually getting that information,” he said.
Asked why that had not been considered before the automated system’s rollout, Tudge said the changes would be looked at as part of an “ongoing process of improvement”.
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The minister continued to defend the system’s effectiveness, saying that just 1.6% of those issued with a debt had asked for a review.
He said Centrelink customers who had a “vulnerable indicator” on their file – people who were homeless or had a profound intellectual disability, for example – were not being targeted by the debt recovery system.
The system mainly focused on youth allowance or unemployment benefits, he said. “It’s only a very small proportion of people who were on a disability support pension who are subject to review, I think it’s 2% from memory. The vast majority are people on unemployment benefits or youth allowance.
“No one who has profound intellectual disabilities would be captured by this.”