ACOSS calls on the Australian Government to immediately suspend the automated Centrelink debt recovery program that is treating current and past Centrelink recipients like second-class citizens. ACOSS also calls for the program to be independently reviewed.
Labor's ongoing accusation that there is a 20% error rate in the Centrelink debt recovery system is false.
Every letter that is initially sent is based on a discrepancy between an individual's income data held at the Australian Taxation Office with their self-reported income data at Centrelink. The first letter simply notes the discrepancy and gives an opportunity for the individual to explain it. This is not a debt letter.
Minister Alan Tudge refusing to suspend or scrap the automated debt recovery system demonstrates a huge failing to comprehend the struggles and distress that the program has caused to people accessing the social safety net, Australian Greens Senator Rachel Siewert said today.
As the pressure ramps up on Human Services Minister Allan Tudge over Centrelink’s most recent attempts to claw back billions paid out through the welfare system, the department is putting together a new procurement panel for “advanced customer aggression training” and preparing to roll out front-line virtual assistants.
Frontline staff in Centrelink branches around the country have been sent a directive not to handle disputes over the government’s debt-collection scheme in person.
Instead they have been ordered to send all but the most vulnerable to online services, the ABC has reported.
A man who has been sitting on hold with Centrelink for the past six hours attempting to address a $6,000 debt that had automatically been assigned to him is reportedly relieved to hear Social Services Minister Alan Tudge say that the system is working exactly as expected.
Human Services Minister Alan Tudge says the Government will not scrap Centrelink’s debt-recovery system, despite ongoing warnings over inaccuracies.
The Government knew Centrelink’s debt recovery program would incorrectly tell clients they owed money if human oversight was reduced, but continued to do so in a bid to cut costs.
Cost-benefit analysis of the Centrelink program — which compares employment data from the Australian Tax Office and Centrelink — found more than 860,000 clients were wrongly told they had debts between 2010 and 2013.
The debt recovery program had human oversight during these years but more than 1 million discrepancies were found, with an average debt value of $1,400 per person.
Centrelink's scandal-plagued debt recovery system is working perfectly fine, according to the Minister in charge.
The Human Services Minister, Alan Tudge, has spoken publicly about claims people are being incorrectly sent letters saying they owe money, dismissing suggestions that the system is broken.
Labor's described his defence of Centrelink's system as "laughable".
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It was a defiant Human Services Minister Alan Tudge who fronted the media today for the first time since the Centrelink debt-recovery saga began.
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Labor has called for the system to be suspended to prevent further stress and hardship, but Mr Tudge says that won't be happening because the debt recovery system is working as it should be.
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