It seems Centrelink’s data-matching woes will continue, with the federal human services minister digging his heels in and refusing to scrap the controversial system.
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Coalition minister Alan Tudge, who returned to work from holidays this week, told ABC Radio National this morning that the “system is working” and that the debt recovery process would continue.
Catholic social services organisation St Vincent de Paul Society has called on the federal government to not use Centrelink as “a weapon of deficit destruction”.
“Centrelink should not be used by the government as a blunt weapon to achieve a deficit reduction on the backs of people who already carry the greatest burden of inequality,” said St Vincent de Paul national council CEO Dr John Falzon.
The charity has demanded that Centrelink’s data-matching system – which has been responsible for thousands of false debt notification letters — be suspended while its shortcomings are ironed out.
Centrelink will resume posting controversial debt recovery letters to thousands of Australians, as Human Services Minister Alan Tudge has defended efforts to recoup incorrect welfare payments and denied the agency made fundamental errors.
Standard procedures saw a halt to initial letters being sent to welfare recipients on December 3 last year, but thousands of Australians have reported receiving debt demands over the Christmas and New Year period, including some for tens of thousands of dollars.
Centrelink’s new automated data-matching system is a source of ongoing controversy. It has resulted in a significant increase in the number of current and former welfare recipients assessed as having been overpaid and required to repay debts.
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But debt problems do not really appear to be the fault of IT failure or the inappropriate use of big data. Rather, they appear to reflect an over-simplistic application of policy to the complexity of workers’ lives in a flexible labour market.
It appears it will be some time before anyone from Centrelink or the Turnbull Government admits it, but Centrelink’s effort to recover “debt” from tens of thousands of welfare recipients has been poorly conceived and executed.
Rebecca Cross of Wallabi Point today directed hard hitting questions to the office of Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.
She wants answers and hopes her experience of the Department of Human Services automated data matching system and its generation of a $1700 Centrelink debt will prompt the Prime Minister to review its system and processes.
Centrelink's scandal-plagued debt recovery system is working perfectly fine, according to the Minister in charge.
The Human Services Minister, Alan Tudge, has spoken publicly about claims people are being incorrectly sent letters saying they owe money, dismissing suggestions that the system is broken.
Labor's described his defence of Centrelink's system as "laughable".
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A Metford man has slammed the federal government after he received a letter from Centrelink telling him he owed thousands of dollars, saying the situation was “a debacle”.
Danny Gilligan is one thousands across Australia who believe they have been wrongly targeted by the welfare agency, which has drawn widespread criticism in recent weeks as similar stories have emerged.
Shadow Human Services minister Linda Burney has accused the Minister responsible for the Centrelink debt recovery debacle of “going into hiding” over the issue as an independent investigation into the process has been announced.
Ms Burney says that Minister for Human Services Alan Tudge has returned from holidays but has not addressed the issue, leaving it to the department to respond to the barrage of public criticism.
It would surprise the federal Coalition government — that assumes we dislike welfare recipients as much as it does — that one of its biggest problems at the start of 2017 is the Centrelink debt fiasco.
The staff tasked with adminstering Centrelink’s “robo-debt” system are under huge pressure too and are demanding an immediate halt to the punitive approach.
A Centrelink worker told Green Left Weekly that the system was implemented without staff being trained and that they were ill equipped to explain the debts.
“We haven’t been told anything about how the robo-debt system works,” they said. “We have just been instructed to direct people to the MyGov website. We have been finding out the specifics about how the debts are generated by listening to Hack [the Triple J afternoon news program] or reading articles on social media.”
Some Centrelink recipients that have been targeted in the department's new debt recovery endeavour are finding themselves in severe financial stress, with some looking at taking out a payday loan to get by. Speaking to the Herald Sun, Centrelink recipient Michael Bond said issues relating to debt recovery were affecting his Medicare payments. He and his family, who reside in Melbourne, are owed $500.
The federal government is standing by its controversial Centrelink debt recovery system despite widespread criticism.
Human Services Minister Alan Tudge insists the automated process is not flawed, saying more than $300 million worth of overpayments has been recouped.
Centrelink's controversial debt recovery system should be immediately suspended, say Tasmanian MPs who have been inundated with complaints about debt notices.
Independent Denison MP Andrew Wilkie and Labor MP Julie Collins have called for the system to be put on hold following an uproar about inaccurate notices.
As the Centrelink debt recovery scandal grew and grew and grew over the holiday period, the responsible politician -- human services minister Alan Tudge -- was nowhere to be seen. He was on holiday, and certainly didn't rush back to work when all hell was breaking loose as people were issued with thousands of dollars in debts they claimed they didn't owe, Centrelink's phone services were swamped, and huge questions were raised over the fairness and accuracy of the new automated system.
Well, Tudge is back at work, and went on ABC Radio National on Wednesday morning to talk about the drama. His response can be summed up thusly:
Human Services Minister Alan Tudge says the continuation of the error-prone Centrelink debt recovery scheme was necessary to maintain the "integrity” of Australia’s welfare system.
Mr Tudge said the system is working and that the government had no plan to discontinue its operation.
Doctors from top Australian universities say they too were hit with erroneous Centrelink debt notices — and even they can’t seem to fix the mistakes.
Darren O’Connell, who has a PhD in economics and lectured at Curtin University, told news.com.au he has tried eight times since November to get his inaccurate debt removed from the system, but the letters keep coming.
The human services minister, Alan Tudge, says he is unaware of any Centrelink recipient who is “completely convinced” they have been given a debt notice they do not owe.
Tudge spoke on the Centrelink debacle for the first time since his return from summer holidays on Wednesday morning, saying he was committed to maintaining the government’s controversial automated debt-recovery system.
The federal government is standing by its controversial Centrelink debt recovery system despite widespread criticism.
Human Services Minister Alan Tudge says people can appeal Centrelink’s debt recovery letters.
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