Centrelink management has ordered frontline staff working in branches not to process disputes over the Federal Government's controversial debt claw-back scheme and instead refer welfare recipients to an online portal.
An internal Centrelink memo obtained by 7.30 said staff "should refer customers online to undertake the intervention" and "must not process activities in relation to the Online Compliance Intervention".
The instructions, available on Centrelink's internal communications system, also told staff in bold text: "Do not cancel the activity under any circumstances."
The memo appears to contradict Human Services Minister Alan Tudge's claim yesterday that people having problems with online and telephone services could go into a Centrelink office and see someone "in 10 minutes".
When pushed on claims that recipients had been turned away at Centrelink offices, Mr Tudge said: "We do have self-terminals in the Centrelink office and there are people there who can help people be able to get online with that process."
A statement from the minister's office to 7.30 said "there is no contradiction — both the memo and the comments are correct".
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The Centrelink employee who spoke to 7.30 said staff were sceptical about the suggestions that the data-matching system could be refined to stop debt notices being sent out in error.
"It is as if Centrelink has simply decided that their prized data-matching program is now too hard, too time consuming and too costly," the employee said.
"So let's outsource it to the customer — they will be so overwhelmed that they will give up."