Category Archives: Centrelink

Robodebt inquiry hears officials were under pressure to come up with budget savings

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Former Department of Human Services official Scott Britton tells royal commission his team looked at whether they could use data to streamline compliance

A former Australian government official involved in the creation of what became the robodebt scheme has told a royal commission his Department of Human Services team was under significant pressure to come up with budget savings.

The royal commission is investigating the botched Centrelink debt recovery scheme, which ran from July 2015 until November 2019 and which the inquiry heard continued despite internal legal warnings, culminating in a $1.8bn settlement with hundreds of thousands of people.

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Robodebt went ahead, despite legal doubts, after earning Scott Morrison’s backing, inquiry hears

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The then social services minister wanted Centrelink debt recovery proposal worked up for 2015 budget process, royal commission told

The social services department received “catastrophic” draft legal advice warning the robodebt scheme was unlawful from a top private law firm in 2018, a royal commission has heard.

The inquiry is investigating the failed debt recovery scheme, which ran from July 2015 until November 2019 and culminated in a $1.8bn settlement covering hundreds of thousands of people issued unlawful Centrelink debts.

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Robodebt: key public officials and debt collectors to appear as royal commission kicks off

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Inquiry into botched Centrelink debt recovery scheme starts its first round of hearings on Monday

Officials from key government departments embroiled in the robodebt scandal and two private debt collection agencies are expected to be grilled when a royal commission kicks off this week.

The inquiry into the botched Centrelink debt recovery scheme will start its first block of hearings on Monday, investigating the establishment, design and implementation of the unlawful program.

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Jobseeker asked to choose between work and job agency appointments under Workforce Australia system

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Multiple complaints of baffling and unrealistic requirements have been reported as being set by employment agencies under the new program

To go to work, or to attend an appointment to “find” work – that’s the question one worker is asking himself under the federal government’s new Workforce Australia employment services system.

The 62-year-old is the latest jobseeker in the new $1.3bn-a-year Workforce Australia program to complain about the baffling mutual obligations he must fulfil.

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Welfare penalties paused after new Workforce Australia app struggles to cope

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Welfare recipients say they have been unable to log on to the new app to log job search efforts required to maintain their benefits

The Albanese government has extended a 30-day pause on welfare payment suspensions to thousands of jobseekers with disability who risked having their benefits stopped due to the trouble-plagued Workforce Australia rollout.

Five days after the launch of the successor to the much-maligned Jobactive scheme, welfare recipients have told Guardian Australia they are still having trouble logging into the application used to log job search efforts and complete other necessary mutual obligations tasks.

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Warning over Centrelink call centres as Services Australia slashes contracts

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Exclusive: Agency says decision to cut outsourced workload by 30% is due to reduced demand as unions warn of longer wait times

Services Australia has embarked on a massive shake-up of its call centre operations, slashing the work it sends to labour hire firms as it approaches one of its busiest periods of the year.

Guardian Australia has learned the agency last week informed its outsourced “service delivery partners” it was cutting the “workload” sent to these four firms by about 30%.

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Job seekers could have welfare stopped under ‘onerous’ new points-based system, advocates warn

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Mutual obligations system will require people to complete an expanded range of activities to keep their payments

Welfare advocates have warned job seekers may have their payments suspended under a new points-based mutual obligations system because of “unnecessarily onerous” requirements.

The “points-based activation system”, to be introduced from 1 July, replaces the rigid 20 job applications a month requirement that has frustrated job seekers and employers for many years.

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Perth mother may have to quit work to care for autistic son after NDIS package cut by 70%

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Labor accuses Coalition of ‘stealth’ cuts to disability funding as other families complain about recent changes

A Perth mother fears she will have to quit her job to care for her autistic son after his national disability insurance scheme package was cut by about 70%, in the latest example of what the opposition is labelling “stealth” cuts to the program.

The National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) insists there is no “directive to reduce funding to NDIS participant plans” and that its so-called Sustainability Action Taskforce – dubbed a razor gang by critics – is “no longer active”.

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Sick, broke and waiting for the disability support pension

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A Senate inquiry has been told Australia’s disability payment rules need to be ‘rewritten’ as people struggle for months, or even years, before receiving support – with some draining their super, relying on charity or accruing thousands of dollars of credit card debt to get by. Many are also forced onto the lower jobseeker payment, with government data showing that 36% of jobseeker recipients are sick or have a disability.

Laura Murphy-Oates speaks to 28-year-old Natasha Thomson, whose two-year battle to access the payment ended up at the top level of the administrative appeal tribunal, and inequality editor Luke Henriques-Gomes, about the barriers to accessing the disability support pension and the push for reform

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Robodebt class action: Coalition agrees to pay $1.2bn to settle lawsuit

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Some 400,000 Australians will share $112m in extra compensation, lawyers say

The Australian government has agreed to a $1.2bn settlement for a class action brought on behalf of hundreds of thousands of robodebt victims.

In a deal struck the day a federal court trial was set to begin, 400,000 people will share in $112m in additional compensation, the firm running the action, Gordon Legal, announced on Monday.

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Nearly 14,000 Australians with disability made to live on $40 a day for 18 months before receiving pension

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People without a specific severe impairment who want to access disability payment are being forced to first do 1.5 years of job search

Nearly 14,000 people have now been forced to do 18 months of job search and survive on $40-a-day jobseeker benefits before they were finally granted the disability pension.

Under Gillard government-era changes aimed at reducing the welfare spend and increasing workforce participation, people without a specific severe impairment who want to access the disability payment must complete up to 18 months of job search within three years.

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Robodebt: fresh claims against federal minister Alan Tudge delay court trial

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Commonwealth needs to prepare for new argument former human services minister knew scheme was unlawful, court says

A federal court trial set to decide whether robodebt victims are entitled to compensation has been delayed after fresh claims were levelled against government minister Alan Tudge.

The court heard at a pre-trial hearing on Monday that Gordon Legal plans to argue Tudge, who was human services minister in 2016-17, either knew or was “recklessly indifferent” to the fact the botched program was unlawful.

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Coalition plays down reports of permanent $75 rise in jobseeker payment

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Social services minister says any talk of permanent change in unemployment payment will be for after coronavirus

The Australian government insists it is focused on the next phase of “short-term measures” to support people through the coronavirus pandemic amid reports it is considering a permanent $75 per week lift in unemployment benefits.

The government has been coming under increasing pressure over the drop-off in economic supports due in September, with the Qantas announcement last week of a further 6,000 job cuts adding to expectations of extended economic pain.

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Labor calls for royal commission into Coalition’s robodebt scheme

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Opposition says inquiry could investigate scheme’s human cost, including reports some victims took their own life

Labor has called for a royal commission into the robodebt program, heaping pressure on the Coalition to accept some form of independent inquiry into the unlawful scheme that some families claim led victims to take their own lives.

In a statement issued on Tuesday the Labor leader, Anthony Albanese, and frontbenchers Bill Shorten and Mark Dreyfus argued a royal commission was needed to probe the creation and administration of the debt recovery scheme, which saw Centrelink send at least 470,000 unlawful demands for money over four years.

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Stuart Robert’s incompetence on MyGov should accelerate his own social isolation | Katharine Murphy

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From fanning national anxiety with claims of a cyber-attack on MyGov, to a lack of empathy for the jobless, the government services minister has no grasp of the gravity of our times

“It was heartbreaking stuff yesterday Alan.”

“Alan”, naturally, is Alan Jones and our heartbreak town crier is Stuart Robert – the minister charged with rolling out government support to Australians knocked sideways courtesy of the coronavirus pandemic.

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Coalition relaxes job-seeking obligations but refuses to suspend them during coronavirus crisis

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Jobseekers can now request appointments be carried out over the phone or online, while Centrelink debt recovery continues despite Covid-19

Welfare recipients will have their mutual obligations relaxed during the coronavirus crisis, but the government has stopped short of heeding calls from Labor, the Greens and social service groups to suspend them entirely.

Facing growing pressure to ease the burden amid a looming economic downturn and increasingly strict social-distancing guidelines, the employment minister, Michaelia Cash, said on Friday the government had adopted a range of measures aimed at making the system more flexible during the Covid-19 outbreak.

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Single mother’s $50,000 welfare debt wiped as tribunal rules Centrelink wrong

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Woman challenges agency after being accused of falsely claiming a single parenting payment while in a relationship

Centrelink was wrong to issue a single mother and alleged domestic violence victim with a $50,000 welfare debt, a tribunal has ruled.

The woman, whose identity was not published, has been locked in a one-year battle with the agency after she was accused of falsely claiming the single parenting payment while in a relationship over a five-year period.

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Robodebt collector’s parent company harassed consumers, ACCC says

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Panthera, being pursued by consumer watchdog, is parent of ARL, contracted to recover debt from welfare recipients

LThe parent company of a debt collector handed $3.3m in taxpayer dollars to pursue welfare recipients over robodebts and other overpayments is being sued by the consumer watchdog for alleged harassment, coercion and unconscionable conduct.

ARL Group was among three companies to share in $16.5m in contracts to carry out debt recovery services for the Department of Human Services in the 2019-20 financial year, tender documents published in July show.

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Huge rise in Centrelink seizing tax returns to repay robodebts

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The value of tax refunds seized by Centrelink for robodebts and welfare overpayments doubled in 2018-19

Centrelink has dramatically ramped up its seizure of tax refunds to target past welfare recipients over robodebts and other welfare overpayments, new figures reveal.

In a response to a Senate question on notice, the Department of Human Services confirmed it recovered $63.4m in 2018-19 by asking the Australian Tax Office to reclaim a person’s tax refund to pay an outstanding debt.

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Exiting the cashless welfare card trial is almost impossible, critics say

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Government accused of ‘demonising vulnerable people’ after only 100 of the 5,000 people on the program allowed to leave

Only 100 of the more than 5,000 people on the cashless welfare card trial have been allowed off the scheme, and the process for exemption has been labelled humiliating and hard to understand.

The government argues the card, which stores up to 80% of a welfare recipient’s payment for use at selected stores, leads to a reduction in violence and harm related to drinking alcohol, illegal drug use and gambling.

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