Centrelink is pursuing the debt of a deceased disability pensioner and other vulnerable people as part of its controversial "robodebt" scheme.

Key points: Six months after a disability pensioner died, Centrelink told his mother he owed a debt of more than $6,700

Six months after a disability pensioner died, Centrelink told his mother he owed a debt of more than $6,700 The mother says Centrelink failed to handle her son's case sensitively

The mother says Centrelink failed to handle her son's case sensitively Leaked documents reveal the extreme time pressures Department of Human Services staff are under to finalise debts



Anastasia McCardel received a call from a Centrelink officer in May and was told her son Bruce McCardel owed a debt of $6,744.52.

"It was basically along the lines of Bruce owed them money," she told 7.30.

"She made out that I was responsible for those payments."

Mr McCardel had died six months earlier, in November 2018, aged 49.

He was born with Noonan syndrome, a genetic condition that affects the heart and other vital organs.

Ms McCardel also received a letter from Centrelink in May this year.

Enclosed was a debt notice, also dated to May, thanking Mr McCardel for checking his income information.

"I wanted to know how they thought Bruce would have worked his way through his paperwork when he actually was dead," she said.

"I actually got quite angry."

Ms McCardel believes her son would have accurately declared his income, but it is unclear how the debt was calculated.

"Bruce always was very careful with what he did with his Centrelink," she said.

Centrelink's deceased customer debt policy advises sensitivity

The Department of Human Services has a policy for dealing with the recovery of debts from deceased individuals.

The policy sets out how and when family members should be contacted, and in what circumstances debts can be recovered from estates. It says debts can only be raised against a person's estate.

The policy advises staff to "remember family members are grieving" and to "check the text of the letter before posting to ensure it is appropriate to the situation".

It says that "if a relative is identified, and four weeks have elapsed since the customer passed away, make two genuine attempts to contact and to request details of the executor of the estate".

Anastasia McCardel is angry at the way Centrelink handled her son's case. ( ABC News )

Ms McCardel believes the department failed to handle her son's case sensitively.

"They certainly have not done the right thing here," she said.

"They've actually not noted that Bruce died last November, presuming from the way they address that letter."

Automated Centrelink debts, described by critics as robodebts, have been criticised by legal groups because they require welfare recipients to prove they do not owe any money.

The robodebt scheme matches income data from the Australian Tax Office with income reported to Centrelink by welfare recipients.

If a discrepancy is detected, people are usually sent a letter asking for further information such as payslips and bank statements, sometimes from years earlier.

The task of disproving debts can be more challenging when the recipient has died.

"To come back at a deceased estate is just absurd, because no-one could ever disprove what happened," Gavin Silbert, a senior QC who retired as Victoria's chief crown prosecutor last year, said.

It is unclear how many automated debts have been raised against welfare recipients after their death.

The Department of Human Services told a Senate inquiry in 2017 it had recovered at least 13 such debts, and this was "because the department was either unaware of the person passing away, or acted in line with the relevant legislation to notify the executor of the estate".

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A spokeswoman for the Department of Human Services told 7.30: "We always put people at the centre of our work and provide a service that is sensitive to individual needs and life events."

"The department regularly looks closely at sensitive cases to see what could have been done better and to provide any additional support if required."

Centrelink's 'BOOST' for robodebt program sets daily targets

The BOOST reporting guide outlines ways to improve productivity. ( ABC News )

Leaked documents obtained by 7.30 also reveal the extreme time pressures Department of Human Services staff are under to finalise debts, and give an insight into how staff inside the system work.

Current and former staff around the country who have worked in the department's compliance division described to 7.30 a culture that encourages them to finalise as many debts in the shortest time possible.

While robodebts are largely automated in the initial stage of identifying a discrepancy between Australian Tax Office data and payment declarations to Centrelink, there is a level of human involvement.

Hundreds of compliance staff around the country are required to enter payslip information and tax data manually.

Compliance staff have recently been distributed a new document called the BOOST reporting guide. The guide encourages the creation of daily targets for their activities, and measures tasks down to the minute.

It sets out that "using ATO match data" is expected to take as little as two minutes, while "using weekly/fortnightly payslips" should take 10 minutes.

Productivity is measured by whether staff achieve these milestones.

"Some compliance officers will be able to achieve far higher than 100 per cent," the guide states.

"The actual number is not important; it is about the improvement compliance officers achieve each day through setting daily targets."

The document sets out that "finalisations are the critical measure".

Robodebt scheme affecting multiple welfare programs

Megan Young's debt was waived after it was determined the department incorrectly calculated her income. ( Supplied: Megan Young )

Dozens of government support recipients have contacted 7.30 after it reported on a legal challenge to the robodebt scheme.

In some of these cases, debts were waived entirely or reduced substantially due to inaccuracies in the initial debt calculation.

The breadth of recipients indicates that automated debts are being raised against a range of different types of welfare payments, including disability support pensions, aged care pensions and certain types of lump sum payments.

The Department of Human Services said in a statement: "The majority of online compliance reviews apply to people who've earned income while receiving income support payments like Newstart and Youth Allowance. Age and Disability Support Pension make up a small proportion of these reviews."

Megan Young received Newstart allowance in 2010 after she was made redundant.

She received a debt notice in May this year for $4,524.66.

However, her debt was waived entirely in July after it was found to have been incorrectly calculated. Her income had been accurately declared.

In some cases the recipients are particularly vulnerable.

In one instance a woman with an intellectual disability was told she owed almost $3,000.

The woman and her family appealed to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT), and the debt was waived entirely.

The AAT said that if the debt was enforced it would cause the social security system "to operate unfairly because it effectively punishes a disabled person for her own disability".

The Department of Human Services spokeswoman said: "We balance the specific sensitivities of working with people who have an existing vulnerability and the obligation to ensure that people have been paid the right amount for their circumstances."

A report released by the Commonwealth Ombudsman in 2019 found Centrelink had improved processes for how it handled automated debts.

"The ombudsman's report also shows we have significantly improved the way we communicate with people to ensure they better understand the way debts are calculated and have greater access to support if they wish to have a debt reviewed," the Department of Human Services spokeswoman said.

Minister for Government Services Stuart Robert told 7.30 the way people deal with the government can "absolutely" be improved.

"There's lots of ways we can improve service delivery across the Commonwealth, which is why the Prime Minister has given me the charter to work towards Services Australia, and we're currently working through a planning process in that regard," he said.

He encouraged anyone with questions about debt notices to "contact the department".

"In the last four or five years the department has recovered $1.9 billion in over-payments, and we have a legal responsibility to do that."