Category Archives: Centrelink

Nearly 90% of jobseekers unable to get long-term work despite millions spent on private job agencies

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Employment department’s annual report shows just 11.7% of jobseekers ended up with jobs lasting at least 26 weeks last year

Australia’s private employment services are failing to get jobseekers into long-term work, despite costing taxpayers millions of dollars each year, department documents show.

Just 11.7% of jobseekers in Australia found long-term employment through a job provider in the latest financial year, according to the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations’ annual report.

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Centrelink threatening payment suspensions at rate of five a minute, new analysis suggests

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Exclusive: As jobseekers continue to have payments suspended, advocates call for the regime to be stopped until it’s proven to be lawful

Centrelink has been issuing payment suspension notices to jobseekers and those on disability support pensions at a rate of more than five a minute, new analysis suggests, amid concerns over the legality of the troubled system.

In total, government data collated by the Antipoverty Centre shows there were 2,683,605 suspension actions between June 2024 and July 2025.

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Revealed: some Australians have overpaid their Centrelink debt by more than $20,000

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Exclusive: Services Australia spokesperson says automatic BPay payments and Centrelink being unable to contact customers may be to blame

Approximately 44,000 Australians who have a debt with Centrelink have overpaid it, some by $20,000 or more, Guardian Australia can reveal.

It is the latest in a string of scandals to hit Centrelink after hundreds of thousands of people had their payments illegally cancelled, with several reviews concluding the welfare system is not working legally and the government announcing plans to undertake at least three remediation processes for separate issues – the robodebt class action, income apportionment and overpaid debts.

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More than 300,000 Australians had Centrelink payments cancelled illegally, new analysis shows

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Peak body for community legal centres finds number of payments suspended due to IT glitch higher than department initially identified

Hundreds of thousands of Centrelink payments were illegally cancelled because of a glitch in the automated system that runs the government’s controversial mutual obligations scheme, the peak body for community legal centres has said.

The analysis from Economic Justice Australia shows about 310,000 people had their Centrelink payments unlawfully cancelled between 2020 and 2024 because they were not given enough time to reconnect to a job provider after missing a compulsory activity as part of their mutual obligations.

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All the 1 January changes in Australia: Centrelink increases, import bans and pay rises

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Bigger Austudy and carer allowance payments, higher Medicare safety net thresholds and mandatory corporate reporting on climate also in 1 Jan changes

With the new year comes new policies, laws, taxes and reforms. Here’s everything to know about changes on 1 January, 2025 that could affect you.

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All the 1 January changes coming to Australia in 2025: Centrelink increases, import bans and pay rises

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Bigger Austudy and carer allowance payments, higher Medicare safety net thresholds and mandatory corporate reporting on climate also ahead

With the new year comes new policies, laws, taxes and reforms. Here’s everything to know about changes on 1 January, 2025 that could affect you.

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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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