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RMIT University academic Dr Kay Cook said the automated system placed an unfair onus on welfare recipients, of which many were already vulnerable.
“It’s setting up a David versus Goliath situation where people need to take on the federal government to remedy the situation,” Dr Cook told The New Daily.
“For people in the benefits system, who are the most vulnerable, the balance of power in that and the responsibility for correct payments is completely wrong."

Centrelink's joint data-matching program with the ATO has so far done a wonderful job, if the area it was designed to perform in was falsely accusing people of accruing massive debts some time in the last decade. Just in case that's not clear: it was not designed to do that (as far as we're aware), and is, in fact, horrible.

A Centrelink compliance officer has broken ranks to describe the government’s crackdown on welfare debts as grossly unfair, saying its new automated compliance system is flawed and overly harsh on those on sickness benefits.
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The Centrelink compliance officer, who asked for anonymity, told Guardian Australia the system was error-prone but that most customers were paying debts without checking them first. The source said of the hundreds of cases they had reviewed, only about 20 (at a “generous estimate”) turned out to be genuine debts.

The federal government has been urged to stop unfairly stinging welfare recipients with a 10% “debt recovery fee”, a practice the human services minister, Alan Tudge, said was news to him when asked about it.

Some doing it tough have been incorrectly referred to debt collectors due to a suspected glitch in Centrelink’s computer system, which has sparked a string of complaints from people being accused of owing Centrelink up to $10,000.
The computer system was put in place six months ago, and it went from sending 20,000 letters a year asking for people to pay back money, to 20,000 letters a week.

The Independent Member for Denison, Andrew Wilkie, called on the Federal Government to urgently fix Centrelink’s automated debt collection system before Christmas.

Improving welfare compliance is a policy we can all support — in principle. The integrity of the system depends on payments going to the deserving, not anyone else.
But how big is the problem? For all that is written about welfare crackdowns in the popular press, they are little discussed in expert circles.

The man in charge of Centrelink’s new system, which is sending thousands of automated letters to welfare recipients asking them for money back, says those feeling “lost in the system” should write to him directly: hank [at] humanservices.gov.au

The government has intensified its efforts to retrieve debts from low-income Australians since mid-2015, when it began using a new automated data-matching system to detect overpayments. Since the system was introduced the number of compliance letters being sent by Centrelink has jumped from 20,000 a year to 20,000 a week.
Recipients are given 21 days to dispute the debt online, forcing them to track down payslips and employment history from up to six years ago to prove they did not wrongly claim benefits.
“If you do not respond, it will be assumed no reasonable excuse applies and the 10% recovery fee may be added to the debt amount,” the letter warns. But problems with Centrelink’s online service have left some users unable to lodge a dispute.

A woman has received a debt recovery letter from Centrelink telling her she's been overpaid and had to return the money.
But rather than a massive bill, the government agency was chasing Kerry King from Rowville, Victoria, for two cents.
So she paid up - by sending Centrelink a two cent coin.

Former Centrelink clients are being harassed for made-up debts from six years ago.
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