The federal government continues to back its highly controversial automated Centrelink debt recovery system despite heavy criticism and digital transformation heavyweight Paul Shetler labelling it “appalling”.
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The system has been heavily criticised for miscalculating this debt information, with the system cross-checking annual ATO data with fortnightly Centrelink payments, and targeting people who don’t actually owe any money.
But Human Services General Manager Hank Jongen says the department is “confident” in the online compliance system.
“If there is a difference in the income recorded by the ATO compared to the income reported to Centrelink for a particular time period, the department is obliged to seek clarification of the difference in data,” Mr Jongen told InnovationAus.com in a statement.
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“I certainly couldn’t say why the government is saying it’s working well when it’s manifestly not working well,” Mr Shetler said. “I think you just have to look at it and say that it’s not. It’s quite clear that it’s not working well.”
Part of the problem, he says, is that the system has no manual oversight and is cross-checking information from different agencies that doesn’t match.
“The problem with this one was quite simply – you had an algorithm which, quite frankly, wasn’t working properly, that was trying to match really disparate data sets,” Mr Shetler said.
“You’re trying to match fortnightly data with yearly data and you’re trying to extrapolate on the results. And it fails.”
Shadow Minister for Human Services Linda Burney has called on the program to be immediately suspended while the Auditor-General investigates.
“Labor absolutely supports measures which effectively recoup wrongly paid welfare,” Ms Burney told InnovationAus.com. “That includes data matching and some automation, but also just using some common sense.
“We do not support accusing honest people of fraud. At a cost of $200 million the government can do better. No minister, no department secretary and no real answers.
“This is part of ensuring the integrity of the welfare system. If someone receives benefits to which they are not entitled, the department is required by law to recover the money.”