Centrelink's 'robo-debt' effort should stop immediately, a Parliamentary committee says, after finding the program had a "profoundly negative impact on the lives of thousands of Australians."
The federal government has been urged to suspend Centrelink's controversial robo-debt program until problems are fixed.
In Tuesday’s hearing of the Senate inquiry into Centrelink’s automated data-matching initiative, we called for the flawed scheme to be immediately abandoned.
Our Managing Director Bevan Warner said the scheme is "an abject failure. It is hurting people. It will continue to undermine the integrity of the social welfare system it is meant to be improving. It is arguably unlawful, and even if it is lawful, it shouldn’t be."
We are urging the Commonwealth Government to implement the findings of a Senate Committee report into Centrelink’s controversial ‘robo debt’ scheme.
The report of a Senate inquiry has recommended that Centrelink pause its automated data-matching program designed to claw back welfare overpayments.
The system has been criticised both for its accuracy and the impact on welfare recipients. The report of the Senate’s Community Affairs Reference Committee, tabled last night, recommended that the so-called Online Compliance Intervention (OCI) “should be put on hold until all procedural fairness flaws are addressed” and a range of other recommendations implemented.
ACOSS again calls on the Federal Government to immediately end the robodebt program ahead of the release of the Senate Inquiry report today.
The St Vincent de Paul Society has renewed calls on the Federal Government to immediately end the robo-debt program following the Senate Inquiry into its disastrous effects on people’s lives.
The Senate inquiry into Alan Tudge’s bungled robo-debt disaster has handed down a scathing report of the system, finding that it was doomed from its inception despite claims from the government that the system was “working well”.
A Senate Committee report into the Government’s Centrelink Online Compliance Intervention (robo-debt) program has called for it to be put on hold until of the procedural fairness flaws in the program are addressed. The Committee a says the Government should re-assess all debts determined through the use of income averaging and that a redesigned system should include a robust risk assessment process.
Senator Skye Kakoschke-Moore is calling on the Government to urgently act on the recommendations in the report released today by the Senate Committee inquiring into the Centrelink robo-debt system.
