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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 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.

South Australia Senator Nick Xenophon says he's been inundated with complaints about Centrelink debt letters and referred the matter to the ombudsman late last month.
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Earlier, this week the Social Services Minister Christian Porter told me that Centrelink's automated compliance system was 'working incredibly well'.
But the stories of the distress caused by what many see as debt recovery notices keep coming in.
South Australia Senator Nick Xenophon says he's been inundated with complaints about Centrelink debt letters and referred the matter to the ombudsman late last month.
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The man handpicked by Malcolm Turnbull to head the government’s digital transformation has said the error rate in Centrelink’s data-matching process is so unfathomably high that it would send a commercial enterprise out of business.
Paul Shetler, the former digital transformation office head, criticised the government’s response to its latest IT crisis, telling Guardian Australia it was symptomatic of a culture of blame aversion within the bureaucracy.

When a government agency tasked with assisting some of the most vulnerable Australians is reduced to suggesting on Twitter that clients seek help via Lifeline, perhaps it is time to acknowledge there might be a problem.

Malcolm Turnbull and his ministers are playing with political fire in their hunt for $4 billion in savings from the welfare system by sending off letters to thousands of Australians with a clear warning that debt collectors will be called in to recover old payments.
The blowback from voters is already dangerous and is certain to get worse when the vast program grows across time. The vitriolic complaints about the exercise during the past few weeks have been based on the first batch of 169,000 letters from Centrelink that assume welfare recipients need to repay some of their benefits. It is a taste of things to come.

Centrelink’s ongoing debt drama is shaping up to remain a troublesome issue as politicians return from holiday and Parliament resumes in February.
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Peter Horbury, from Social Security Rights Victoria, says the issue is merely bubbling along now, as people try to deal with Centrelink. But after a certain number of weeks have elapsed, the debts can be passed to debt collectors. “If you think there’s a fuss now wait ’til the debt collectors go out,” Mr Horbury told The New Daily.

Disability advocates have put further pressure on the government to suspend its automated debt recovery system, while Centrelink continues to refer distressed and suicidal individuals to Lifeline.
Disabled People’s Organisations Australia, a collection of disability support and advocacy groups, has called on the government to immediately halt the recovery process, which has relied on a crude and automated data-matching process to begin chasing 169,000 debts from welfare recipients since July.

Centrelink is threatening dozens of Australians with bad credit ratings and legal action if they refuse to sign up to payment plans to repay thousands of dollars in questionable debt.

A former Ballarat man who was notified of a $6000 debt to Centrelink just two days out from Christmas said he was “traumatised” by the experience.