Debt letter circus
Labor calls for an investigation into Centrelink’s debt recovery scheme, calling it a disaster… but the government stands firm
VIDEO
Labor calls for an investigation into Centrelink’s debt recovery scheme, calling it a disaster… but the government stands firm
VIDEO
Tony Barber survived a battle with cancer. But now the 29-year-old has to battle a bureaucratic nightmare after receiving a Centrelink debt notice for $4500 in the lead-up to Christmas.
A Ballarat woman has been forced to hunt down five-year-old payslips over Christmas while caring for an elderly relative in order to challenge thousands of dollars she allegedly owed to Centrelink.
Ballarat MP Catherine King’s office has seen a spike in complaints in the lead up to Christmas after the government agency mobilised an automated debt recovery system, which its own employees have said is unable to take into account intermittent or casual work.
In 2017 we will be finalising an ongoing assessment of the privacy aspects of DHS’s Enhanced Welfare Payment Integrity — non-employment income data-matching program, as well as conducting further assessments into their data-matching activities. The results of these assessments will be made available to the public at their conclusion.
No investigation has been opened in relation to this matter by my office.
The information watchdog is assessing Centrelink's data matching system.
Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce has said the government makes "no apology" for pursuing people's debts as it continues to fend off anger surrounding Centrelink's troubled $4.5 billion debt recovery mission.
Mr Joyce - the most senior government figure to weigh into the furore so far - said that social security recipients who owe the government "are not criminals" but need to settle the debts in the interest of taxpayers.
Centrelink has slashed the debts of two welfare recipients after they spoke out about the Federal Government's controversial $4.5 billion debt clawback program.
Ms Stilbe said she intended to the dispute the remaining debt.
Labor has been critical of Centrelink faults, with frontbencher Anthony Albanese saying the government is 'callous' for hounding a Sydney cancer survivor over a false Centrelink debt.
The Disabled People’s Organisations Australia, a collection of disability support and advocacy groups, has raised concerns the current debt recovery process, that uses automated data matching, is particularly unfair for people with disability.
It comes after Centrelink has come under fire for using data from the Australian Tax Office to check records about people’s income, without staff involvement or oversight.
Tony Barber was shocked to receive a debt recovery notice for $4500, dating back six years to his recovery from cancer.
Curtis Dickson is paying back a $750 debt to Centrelink – but he doesn’t believe he owes them any money.
Federal MP Anthony Albanese has joined with two of his constituents Tony Barbar and Curtis Dickson to take aim at the federal government over the new automated debt recovery system.
They are two in a growing number of cases that have emerged of people receiving written demands for money they say they do not owe.
Orange residents have been hit by Centrelink’s debt clawback scheme.
Two more victims of Centrelink’s debt crackdown have emerged, as the Opposition turns the screws on Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull over the government’s $4.5 billion benefits clawback.
Labor has called on the National Audit Office to investigate Centrelink's controversial debt recovery scheme that has been criticised for mistakenly targeting vulnerable Australians.
The Government has defended the scheme — which cross references employment data from the Australian Tax Office and Centrelink — despite the Opposition claiming it was brutal and poorly designed.
In this episode Melissa Castan and Kate Galloway have a conversation about what caught their attention over the holiday period – mainly the question of government power exercised through the Centrelink data matching debts controversy. They explore the manner that the debt notices or ‘inquiries’ have come about, the impacts upon Centrelink customers, and whether this use of big data is a glitch, a strategy or a government policy.
AUDIO
The automated Centrelink Debt Recovery system has left thousands of Australian welfare recipients in crisis after a large number of inaccurate debt demands were distributed. A significant number of these vulnerable, low- income Australians that have been targeted are students.
Labor has today called on the Australian National Audit Office to conduct an independent performance review into the Turnbull Government’s disastrous, error prone Centrelink data matching program.
When not just the Courier-Mail, but also other News Limited publications and A Current Affair are criticising the government for being too harsh on social security recipients, perhaps it’s time the government acknowledged how dangerous this Centrelink issue has become, and responded.
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The onus is on citizens to disprove the debt at short notice, over summer holidays, using materials such as pay slips and doctor’s certificates they were never previously asked to keep. Often it’s material they’d submitted to Centrelink previously. The system by which people must register their objections and responses is completely overloaded, with phone lines jammed and IT systems groaning or simply incapable of coping with the task at hand.
The Australian Government's ongoing Centrelink bungle is an indication of the fact that an obsession over the use of big data to balance the budget and the ability to do so skillfully are oceans apart.
Today I have joined with victims from my electorate of Grayndler to speak out about of the Turnbull Government’s Centrelink debt debacle.
Over the Christmas and New Year period I have been inundated with calls from constituents distressed because they have been issued debt notices and threats of debt recovery action for debts that they never incurred.
Thousands of people with disability, students, pensioners and people recovering from life threatening illnesses are being told by the Turnbull Government that the onus is on them to prove that they have not acted fraudulently.
The Coalition's need to create scapegoats in a despicable effort to shore up its increasing unpopularity, has led to a savaging of Centrelink “customers” that has dramatically backfired.
Centrelink has wrongfully harassed a Sydney cancer survivor for a $4500 debt in what Labor frontbencher Anthony Albanese says is a callous move.
After speaking with the Department of Human Services and the Australian Ombudsman, Timothy Pilgrim said he has not opened an investigation into the issue-plagued Centrelink debt recovery system.
The man the Malcolm Turnbull hired to transform the government’s digital capabilities has ripped into the Centrelink data-matching system, saying the reported 20% error rate would have already well and truly sunk a private company.