Category Archives: Centrelink

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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Robodebt could target pensioners and ‘sensitive’ groups, leaked documents show

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Exclusive: Coalition needs to include over 65s and other disadvantaged welfare recipients to hit $600m budget plan

The Morrison government could target thousands of pensioners and other “sensitive” welfare recipients under a proposed expansion of the controversial robodebt scheme needed to achieve a promised $2.1bn in budget savings, according to confidential documents seen by Guardian Australia.

The documents, stamped “PROTECTED CABINET”, show the scheme would fall $600m short of its required budget savings unless it is expanded to hit “sensitive” groups originally quarantined from data matching.

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‘Really upset’: welfare changes forced woman to volunteer as husband was dying

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Amid debate around the low rate of Newstart, for those nearing pension age, a collision of policy adjustments is taking its toll

Marie Jentner’s husband was dying when Centrelink gave her some more bad news: she was now a jobseeker.

At 62, she had quit her job of 27 years to care for Siegfried, who had testicular cancer and couldn’t walk or look after himself. When he was moved into palliative care the following year, Jentner’s carer’s payment was cancelled and she was put on the lower Newstart allowance.

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Homeless woman says Centrelink took entire $3,500 tax return for disputed robodebt

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Couch surfing 50-year-old says welfare agency told her she wasn’t in financial hardship

A Melbourne woman battling homelessness says her entire $3,500 tax return was swiped by Centrelink last month, despite the fact she disputes the alleged robodebt.

But when Sue Prgic, 50, complained to the agency that the money had been taken without her knowledge, she said staff had asked to know what she would do with the cash if it were returned.

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New rules for job seekers prompt warning about another ‘robodebt debacle’

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Mutual obligation overhaul welcomed but government urged not to rely on ‘automated compliance’

The government’s proposed changes to how job seekers are made to look for work while receiving welfare have been mostly welcomed by stakeholders – although it’s also been warned against creating another “robodebt” scenario through an overreliance on automation.

Kelly O’Dwyer announced the biggest overhaul in mutual obligation requirements for 20 years on Wednesday, with the government to free job seekers from having to apply for 20 positions a month, as well as allowing job hunters to look for work online.

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‘Right intention’: Kelly O’Dwyer rules out changes to ParentsNext before election

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Minister says errant providers of the welfare program will be penalised, but critics say this is ‘too little, too late’

Kelly O’Dwyer has ruled out making changes to the contentious ParentsNext welfare program before the election, despite urgent calls from the employment services sector, social service and women’s groups, and Australia’s human rights watchdog.

Defending the $350m program as having the “right intention”, the jobs minister said the government would instead consider penalising providers that breached the rules.

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