Category Archives: Centrelink

Major job provider accused of trying to get jobseeker to sign off on false work invoice

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Woman claims APM threatened to cut off her jobseeker payment after she refused to sign false time sheet. APM denies any wrongdoing

One of the country’s biggest job providers is accused of pressuring a jobseeker to sign a false description of her employment status, an alleged deception which would have triggered a publicly funded payment to the company.

The Victorian woman, who did not want to be named, claims the employment service provider APM asked her to sign paperwork confirming she had worked four weeks when she had actually spent months on sick leave. APM has strongly denied any wrongdoing.

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Centrepay report that found major failings ‘ignored’ by successive Coalition governments, author says

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Advocate Anna Buduls AO says her 2013 report, which found major failings with the controversial Centrepay debt recovery system, was mostly forgotten about

A government-appointed reviewer who warned the government of serious problems with its Centrepay debt recovery system 11 years ago says her report was “mostly buried” and ignored and has expressed “huge sadness” that people continued to suffer.

Anna Buduls was tasked by the Gillard government in 2012 to review the controversial system. She recommended a significant overhaul of the system to stop the “exploitation of financially vulnerable people by some unscrupulous operators”.

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Media exposure has forced the government’s hand on Centrepay. The contrast with robodebt could not be more stark

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The Centrepay revelations should shock Australians – but not the government, after years of complaints about financial exploitation

In the months since the government announced it would overhaul its controversial Centrepay debit system, one thing has become abundantly clear.

Many already knew it was failing.

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IT expert wins long-running freedom of information court battle over robodebt documents

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Justin Warren first lodged request with the then Department of Human Services in January 2017

The federal court has ruled against a decision blocking access to early robodebt documents drafted under the former Coalition government, as part of one man’s long-running fight to shed light on the scheme’s origins.

Justices Geoffrey Kennett, Anna Katzmann and Shaun McElwaine ruled that a December 2022 decision made by the administrative appeals tribunal (AAT) to keep some robodebt documents exempt, including draft costings and new policy proposals, should be set aside due to procedural unfairness and because the AAT had incorrectly agreed with the cabinet confidentiality exemptions Services Australia applied.

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Robodebt was illegal but were its officials corrupt? This decision means now we won’t know

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The National Anti-Corruption Commission won’t investigate six individuals referred by the royal commission. It’s yet another blow for victims

An email landed in my inbox not long after the National Anti-Corruption Commission announced its refusal to investigate the robodebt scandal.

It was from Michael Griffin, a robodebt victim. Griffin, like countless others, descended into a spiral of shock and shame after he was wrongly told to repay a $3,197 welfare debt in late 2016.

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Robodebt: national corruption watchdog won’t investigate officials referred by royal commission

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Nacc says it decided not to launch corruption probe ‘as it would not add value in the public interest’

The National Anti-Corruption Commission (Nacc) won’t pursue an investigation into six individuals referred by the robodebt royal commission, due to separate public service investigations being carried out into five of them.

The Nacc said on Thursday that it was “unlikely it would obtain significant new evidence” and had concluded it was “undesirable for a number of reasons to conduct multiple investigations into the same matter”.

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Bill Shorten’s Julianne Stewart speechwriter paid $300,000 a year by Services Australia, Senate estimates told

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Julianne Stewart has secured two-year contract despite agency employing 200 media and communication staff

A professional speechwriter contracted to work with the government services minister, Bill Shorten, is expected to cost taxpayers $600,000 over two years, despite Services Australia employing 200 media and communication staff.

Appearing in Senate estimates on Monday, Services Australia confirmed Julianne Stewart has secured a government contract worth about $300,000 a year, which is in its second year. The arrangement came to light after the tender was published on the government’s AusTender website.

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Centrelink mutual obligations: budget changes tipped to prevent 1m jobseeker suspensions a year

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Announcements are ‘good steps’ to reduce harms caused by employment services system but fall short of the overhaul required, advocates say

The Albanese government will relax some of the requirements imposed job seekers as a condition for their income support, with a suite of changes expected to prevent around 1m welfare payment suspensions every year.

Changes to the mutual obligations scheme, contained in the federal budget, will ease the rules that govern when a person’s payments are suspended, meaning job seekers will have a five-day grace period – rather than 48 hours – to account for missing employment services appointments and other activities before their income support is cut off.

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Jim Chalmers flags cost of living help for job seekers in federal budget

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‘There is more than one way to help people who are on income support,’ treasurer says when suggesting rebates and concessions could be boosted

The federal government is poised to expand rebates and concessions available to job seekers in next week’s federal budget, which is also expected to increase rent assistance.

The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, has confirmed that Tuesday’s budget will not increase the jobseeker payment but suggested it would boost concessions linked to social security payments, among a suite of measures designed to offer cost-of-living relief without pushing up inflation.

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Payslip wars: Australian jobseekers suffer harassment in ‘a crazy system that doesn’t work for anyone’

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Private job providers can claim public money when jobseekers find work. But they need their payslips to do so, and some resort to extreme methods to get them

A former employee of one of Australia’s biggest job network providers has spoken up about the extreme methods they use to claim public money when jobseekers find employment.

One researcher called the process – supposedly designed to help people enter the workforce or increase their hours – a “crazy system that doesn’t work for anyone”.

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‘Financial abuse’: how a debit scheme to help vulnerable Australians led to exploitation instead

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A Guardian investigation has revealed that Centrepay is exposing scores of welfare recipients to financial harm. Advocates say the government must act now

In February the Albanese government announced a $97m compensation scheme for thousands of Aboriginal people who lost all that they had paid to the predatory funeral insurer ACBF-Youpla.

When ACBF-Youpla collapsed in 2022, it left more than 13,000 Aboriginal people, some of them elderly and in palliative care, without the means to pay for funerals.

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Government ignored warnings more than 100 companies may be misusing Centrepay scheme, Asic says

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Services Australia’s failure to act ‘inexcusable’ and urgent action needed to help people struggling to get by, senators say

The corporate regulator repeatedly warned Services Australia that it should review and consider removing more than 100 companies from a government-run debit scheme that allows early access to welfare payments.

But it said its attempts to sound the alarm about potential misuse of the scheme have had no impact.

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Second energy firm wrongly received money from welfare payments under Centrepay scheme

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Services Australia is working with Ergon to return overpayments, prompting fears the issue first identified at AGL could be widespread

A second Australian energy company wrongly received money from the welfare payments of former customers, prompting fears that the issue identified at AGL could be widespread.

Guardian Australia revealed last week that $700,000 had been diverted via the government-run Centrepay debit system from the pockets of more than 500 welfare recipients to the energy giant AGL.

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Australia politics live: Shorten to table bill to overhaul NDIS; Black Summer inquiry to deliver findings

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The Labor minister will present the proposed legislation to the lower house this morning. Follow the day’s news live

Ceasefire motion: Birmingham pushed for stronger condemnation of October 7 attacks

Simon Birmingham attempted to amend the motion to include a stronger condemnation of October 7 (the Australian parliament has passed motions condemning Hamas and the events of 7 October in the past).

We acknowledge the government in putting forward a resolution seeking to reflect much of the UN Security Council resolution; however, it is the opposition’s view that that does not say enough. It does not say enough to reflect the totality of the UN Security Council resolution nor does it say enough about the totality of what should be Australia’s clear, unequivocal moral conviction in this conflict.

That is why I present and seek leave to move amendments in this chamber, which would better reflect the UN Security Council resolution—namely, that the call for a ceasefire was for an immediate ceasefire for the month of Ramadan, a ceasefire that would secure the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages and that that can then lead to a sustainable ceasefire.

I know that this motion may not reflect every aspect of all our positions on these issues, but there is enough here to agree on. I ask senators to look for the points that are in front of them. Whether senators consider themselves a friend of Israelis or Palestinians or both, as I do, we should be able to come together in agreeing on the urgency of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. When hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza are starving, we should be able to come together to underline the urgency of an immediate ceasefire for the month of Ramadan leading to a sustainable ceasefire as per the UN Security Council resolution; we should be able to come together to demand Hamas comply with the Security Council’s demand for the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages; and we should be able to come together to demand that the Netanyahu government comply with the Security Council’s demand that all barriers to the provision of humanitarian assistance at scale are removed.

If the divided United Nations Security Council could come together on these issues then we ought to be able to do likewise. If countries as different as Algeria, Ecuador, France, the United Kingdom and others can agree on these points, then we ought to be able to do likewise. Not a single country voted against this resolution, and we should recognise what it means that not one of the permanent five members of the Security Council stood in the way. Right now we are faced with reports from the United Nations that 650,000 Palestinians in Gaza are starving and well over a million are at risk of starvation. Right now more than 1.7 million people in Gaza are internally displaced.

There are, as I have said, increasingly few safe spaces to go. Right now there are more than 130 hostages still being held by the terror group Hamas, and we condemn Hamas’ actions as we have always done.

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Brain tumour patient had Centrelink payments suspended while in hospital recovering from surgery

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Australian Council of Social Service says ‘unconscionable’ case shows why mutual obligations system must be ‘replaced with a fair system’ for jobseekers

A jobseeker is calling for an overhaul to the way suspensions are handled after his Centrelink payments were suspended while he was in hospital recovering from brain surgery.

The Albanese government is mulling an overhaul of the employment services system following a damning parliamentary review that criticised the mutual obligations system, which can suspend jobseekers’ welfare payments if they do not fulfil tasks such as attending meetings and submitting job applications.

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Job agencies suspending Centrelink payments at an alarming rate, data reveals

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Exclusive: Smaller Workforce Australia providers, including those catering to Indigenous jobseekers, have effectively suspended more than 90% of their caseloads

Some of Australia’s outsourced employment service providers have effectively suspended the Centrelink payments of more than 90% of the jobseekers on their books, new data reveals.

Jobseekers have their payments suspended as part of the mutual obligations regime, which is meant to ensure jobseekers are actively looking and preparing for work. If they do not fulfil activities such as job applications, training courses, interviews and meetings with job providers, their Centrelink payments are suspended.

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Jobseeker endured 11 weeks without Centrelink payments but was still forced to attend job agency appointments

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Advocates say government failing to meet ‘basic obligation’ to process claims quickly after Tim McCabe spent weeks with ‘no income’

A New South Wales jobseeker says he was forced to complete welfare mutual obligations – including a 50km round trip for job agency appointments and enrolling in training courses – despite receiving no welfare payments for 11 weeks.

Tim McCabe, 60, said he had applied for the jobseeker payment on 1 November after moving off a carer’s payment when his mother died.

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Data shows ‘collapse’ in full-time roles – as it happened

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Pat Conroy says Ukraine-requested helicopters are not cleared for flight

The defence industry minister, Pat Conroy, is speaking to ABC RN about a request from Ukraine to receive Australia’s retired fleet of MRH-90 Taipan helicopters. The helicopters were retired earlier than planned after a crash in Queensland killed four Defence personnel during a training exercise last year:

Anyone who suggests that these aircraft have been cleared is wrong and they are making, quite frankly, really offensive suggestions at a time when people are really grieving.

I think it’s really important that those investigations keep working to establish the cause of that accident. These aircraft are [not in] flying condition, and we still do not know whether they’re safe to fly.

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Centrelink staff claim toilet breaks are being timed by management in ‘intrusive’ crackdown

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Call centre workers say systems are monitoring their performance minute-by-minute in bid to improve wait times

Centrelink call centre staff claim they are being monitored minute-by-minute, including the length of their bathroom breaks, as part of a management-led crackdown to improve average call wait times that have blown out to nearly double in the last year.

Staff spoke to Guardian Australia on the condition of anonymity, for fear of losing their jobs, claiming management systems, which assist team leaders in capturing call time figures and monitoring staff activities, acted more like a surveillance system, describing them as “intrusive and stressful”.

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Major Australian employment service accused of claiming credit for work jobseeker found herself

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Exclusive: Documents seen by Guardian Australia suggest job provider APM referred woman for role she had already won; APM deny wrongdoing

One of the country’s biggest job providers has been accused of claiming it referred a jobseeker into work she got herself, which could trigger publicly funded incentive payments.

In July, a New South Wales woman, who asked for her name not to be used, found herself a job as a youth worker just as she was accessing jobseeker and matched with employment service provider, APM.

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