Centrelink’s controversial data-matching program will be “refined”, as the Turnbull government tries to deflect mounting political pressure from welfare groups and Labor for it to be suspended.
The Australian Council of Social Service yesterday joined the federal opposition in calling for a halt to the scheme and an independent review, declaring that the automated debt-recovery program was treating current and past Centrelink recipients “like second-class citizens”.
The government is sticking by the system, which matches a welfare recipient’s details with information from the Australian Taxation Office to determine if there has been a “discrepancy” in their payments.
[...]
Human Services Minister Alan Tudge said the government would “continue to refine and improve” it in the months ahead, although no radical changes to the system were expected. “One of the things, for example, which we’ll be particularly looking at in the shorter term will be looking at how we can ensure that people are getting that first notification letter (of a debt),” Mr Tudge said.
“We have a legal obligation to send that letter to their address which is on their Centrelink file but we may also be able to take other action to ensure they are getting that first letter. Welfare constitutes a third of the budget now, so we must ensure that there is integrity in that system.”
So far 169,000 of an estimated 1.7 million letters have been sent out and the next batch is due to be delivered within days.
Mr Tudge said it was “not unreasonable” to ask a welfare recipient to explain a discrepancy in their payments and they had three opportunities to update or correct the record.
[...]
Opposition human services spokeswoman Linda Burney attacked Mr Tudge for “denying” there was an issue that needed to be fixed after his return from leave. “While the minister holidayed, public concern began to mount about an automated Centrelink debt-raising process which public servants have acknowledged has an error rate of at least one in five — meaning that at least 4000 honest people per week are being accused wrongly,” Ms Burney said.
“Clearly the minister is completely out of touch.”