I was lucky to have a Centrelink employee call me to review an incorrect debt – but I’m worried that politicians don’t seem keen to fix the errors in the system.
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I wonder if part of the reason they like issuing debts instantly is because it helps them create numbers like “$300m in recovered claims”. That number is very slippery, because as I understand it, it isn’t actually money that’s been recovered, merely money for which debt notices have been issued. They do not have that money, that is simply the money the computer system has demanded from people so far.
The man who conducted my review, Mr Shockjock, said something which Mr Jongen said too: that Centrelink’s methodology hasn’t changed. And again, I think that’s misleading. The methodology is the same as before, but previously a human being would run the process, and look at the dates, and not make that appalling 26 fortnight averaging mistake.
The methodology is the same, sure, but they’ve replaced the intelligent Centrelink human employees carrying out that methodology, with a dumb computer that doesn’t know what it’s doing, and that makes mistakes constantly because of errors in the way it was designed.
So when you hear Mr Jongen or Mr Porter or Mr Turnbull – if he chooses to speak up – or Mr Tudge if he comes home (please, Mr Tudge, come home, we miss you), then take what they say with a grain of salt. They may be technically correct but they’re being deliberately misleading. They are misusing the data to create a false narrative – much like the Centrelink debt system itself.
The solution is to hire more humans to do the data analysis. As a bonus, that means less people receiving Centrelink benefits!
If you have received a false debt, start an appeal. And in the meantime, shout about it from the rooftops. Tell your friends and your family, and your grandma, especially your grandma. You don’t need to be ashamed but we need all of our voices if we are going to get this system paused, fixed and restarted.