Bill Shorten says case of deceased disability pensioner targeted by welfare debt recovery program should ‘shame’ minister to act

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Labor has called for the government to scrap its controversial welfare debt recovery scheme, saying the so-called robodebt program is “seriously malfunctioning”.

At the height of controversy around the scheme in 2017, the opposition called for it to be suspended, but it has never called for it to be abolished. The Coalition has used program to bolster the budget by raising more than $1bn in alleged welfare debts.

Labor’s human services spokesman, Bill Shorten, said on Monday night that the program was a mess, citing as the final straw an ABC report that detailed how the estate of a deceased disability pensioner had been targeted by the scheme.

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Shorten said the case should “shame government services minister Stuart Robert to finally act and address the problems at the heart of this scheme”.

“We recognise the right of government to recoup legitimate debts that are owed,” he said. “But robodebt is not that, it is a mess.”

More than 500,000 debts have now been raised under the program, but data released earlier in the year showed that about 113,000 – or around 20% – have been waived or reduced since the scheme began in 2016.

As the government has ramped up the scheme this financial year, staff have told Guardian Australia they have continued to issue welfare debts they know could be incorrect under pressure to meet informal performance targets.

On Monday night the ABC published contents of a newly issued handbook that contains specific targets for the time taken to raise debts.

Shorten also cited reports that the social services minister, Anne Ruston, has contradicted the Department of Human Services about whether Centrelink has resumed robodebt activities in Townsville.

Guardian Australia revealed this month that staff were told to lift a “quarantine” on the town, which was ravaged by floods earlier in the year.

On Monday night Robert would not acknowledge flaws in the program, instead reiterating that people with concerns should contact Centrelink.

He said he understood why people were angry about receiving debts they didn’t believe they owed, but said the government had a responsibility to recover the money.

“I certainly understand that and I always encourage people, if in doubt, contact the department,” he said.

“In the last four or five years the department has recovered $1.9bn in overpayments and we have a legal responsibility to do that. I guess it’s type of a mutual obligation.”

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However, despite the large amount of debts raised, a Senate estimates hearing was told in February that only $500m had actually been paid back, meaning the program had so far cost nearly as much as it had recouped.

The scheme is the subject of a legal challenge by Victoria Legal Aid which will go to trial later in the year.

Robert also denied the program had been expanded to include more vulnerable welfare recipients, though government figures confirm it has significantly ramped up the number of debts it has raised this financial year.

Shorten said: “The minister will not concede any of this is a problem. Yet robodebt is not just inaccurate.

“It is being enforced in a harsh and cruel way and we now know it is being driven from above.”

In 2017, a Labor-Greens majority Senate inquiry recommended the scheme be suspended and for all debts calculated using the error-prone “income averaging” process to be reassessed.

During the 2019 election campaign, advocates had called on Labor to promise it would abolish the program, but the opposition declined to do so.