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Government backs Centrelink debt system despite 'incorrect' $24,000 demand

29 December 2016
Guardian

The system has been described as a “drag net”, which sends out about 20,000 notices a week that effectively reverse the onus of proof onto welfare recipients. 
Many individuals do not receive the initial letter from Centrelink, due to either a change of address or the lack of a MyGov account. If no dispute is made, the government takes it to mean that the debt is accurate. 
The government is charging 10% debt recovery fees, and [human services minister, Alan Tudge] has threatened those who do not pay with jail. Many problems appear to stem from the comparison of annual pay information reported to the tax office with the income reported to Centrelink fortnightly. 
Labor, [Independent MP Andrew Wilkie], and the Australian Council for Social Service (Acoss) have all called for the system to be temporarily suspended pending an investigation into the complaints.

Centrelink rorts crackdown could hit regional people hard, Bendigo MP says

30 December 2016
Bendigo Advertiser

Member for Bendigo Lisa Chesters believes Centrelink’s new automated debt recovery system could unfairly target people in regional areas due to poorer communication services.
[...]
It has raised $300 million in overpayments for the government following 169,000 reviews.
But Ms Chesters said it was a flawed system that failed to take into account a number of factors for those living in regional areas.
“Over the Christmas period I was contacted by several people who had their payments suspended. For most of them it appeared to be no fault of their own,” she said. “Quite often people do not know they have to attend an appointment because appointment letters have not arrived before the scheduled appointment or a text message telling them to attend an appointment, they attend only to be told no appointment exists. Days later their payments are suspended for a ‘failure to attend’.
It's unfair to suspended a payment if you don't know you have to attend an appointment.”

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