Category Archives: Centrepay

AGL’s use of Centrepay not audited for two years despite allegations it wrongly took $700,000 from vulnerable Australians

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Services Australia says it is also working to retrieve overpayments from Queensland’s Ergon Energy

The federal government has not audited AGL’s use of Centrepay in two years despite revelations that the energy giant wrongly received more than $700,000 in welfare money from its former customers through the government-run debit system.

A Guardian Australia investigation of Centrepay, a system allowing businesses access to welfare payments before they hit recipients’ bank accounts, has revealed significant failings.

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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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