Centrelink robo-debts still shaking down vulnerable Australians

The Independent Member for Denison, Andrew Wilkie, is calling on the Commonwealth Ombudsman to open another investigation into Centrelink’s disastrous robo-debt program, after hearing from a whistleblower about even more flaws in the system and from constituents who are getting hit with nonsensical debts in the tens of thousands of dollars. A copy of his letter to the Ombudsman, as well as an example of a debt letter, is attached.

“In April 2017, the Commonwealth Ombudsman’s office found that Centrelink’s debt letters were unclear, that customers had enormous problems collecting old payslips and that they were unable to get satisfactory answers from Centrelink staff when they queried a debt,” Mr Wilkie said.

“Now there’s even more evidence emerging of how deeply flawed the process is, which is why I’m asking the Ombudsman to investigate further.

“For example someone who has a good knowledge of these processes tells me that people who provide payslips rather than bank statements may incur a higher debt because the system doesn’t factor in gross versus net income. And people sometimes get double or triple debts because the name of their employer is recorded slightly differently.

“What’s more is that people are being hit with debts in the tens of thousands of dollars with basically no explanation and sometimes as little as a few weeks to pay up. The letters they get are nonsensical, often offering nothing more than the name of a payment and a demand for thousands of dollars.

“This is simple stuff to fix. The Government should have dealt with all of this a long time ago and can’t claim teething problems because this program has been operating for over 18 months.

“And while of course this is devastating for the people who are saddled with these debts and can’t get a straight answer out of Centrelink, it’s also devastating for the Centrelink staff who

are caught in the middle of this and have to work with this deeply flawed system.

“But rather than learning from their mistakes, the Government has banked $300 million in savings in the upcoming budget by planning to extend data-matching activities between Centrelink and the Australian Taxation Office.

“I call on the Ombusdman to further investigate because this goes deeper than we originally feared, and every day that this robo-debt program is allowed to go unchecked is another day that ordinary Australians are being wrongfully targeted.”