Centrelink staff have spoken privately about being encouraged to work overtime to meet debt notice quotas, Denison independent MHR Andrew Wilkie has claimed.
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Mr Wilkie recently detailed in a letter to the Commonwealth Ombudsman information communicated to him by several Centrelink officers.
They had told him that staff have been given a quota of six to 10 notices to issue each day and that teams of officers have been competing to issue the most notices – an assertion that Human Services Department general manager Hank Jongen has denied.
“However, as part of our normal practice we do have service standard targets for dealing with debts as quickly as possible, which may include overtime,” Mr Jongen said.
“It would appear these two processes have been confused.”
Mr Wilkie said the staff have told him that they have been been discouraged at looking too closely at complex debt notices.