Centrelink has been fraudulently issuing debt notices to people who owe no money. Persons so identified are then harassed and threatened to the point that they pay this un-owed debt rather than being penalised by a system, which they already know actively disparages them.
Some 20,000 people a week receive notices of debts — allegedly to recoup incorrect welfare payments. Said notices are triggered by a controversial automated debt recovery system, now under intense criticism because of what is essentially (or intentionally?) the flawed logic of its computer algorithm.
An inherent incompatibility exists between Centrelink’s financial information and the Australian Tax Office (ATO) records. It’s a matter of timing. Centrelink has information about its payments made fortnightly, and possibly data relevant to jobs that clients were offered and accepted. Centrelink is unlikely to be aware of the continuing circumstances of that job or subsequent ones found independently in the course of any given financial year. The ATO has only an annual summary of income. There is no breakdown into weeks, fortnights or months. There is also no breakdown of pay rates, when it was specifically known they earned it, or what changes to income streams occurred in the course of the year.
The ATO data is, therefore, incompatible with Centrelink’s data. The Government is comparing apples with oranges.