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Centrelink has brought forward its annual Christmas shutdown of posting debt and review notices, as the Department of Human Services manages ongoing fallout from the "robo-debt" saga. Departmental staff usually stop sending new review and debt letters to welfare recipients in the days before Christmas, but amid ongoing criticism of the government's efforts to match tax and employment data to Centrelink records, new correspondence was stopped in late November. One insider said departmental staff continued to investigate existing cases but had been told not to issue new debt notices until early 2018. As part of efforts to recovery over payments of Centrelink benefits, the department matches tax records and pay reports to the welfare agency before income is averaged over 26 fortnightly reporting periods. The automated data matching process has led to hundreds of reports of welfare recipients receiving demands for large amounts in repayments, many of which have been reduced or cancelled when challenged. Department of Human Services spokesman Hank Jongen said the Christmas shutdown was an annual event. "Consistent with usual practice, the department is reducing review and debt letters in the lead-up to Christmas," he said. "The department paused the mailout of initial online compliance review letters in early November. These will resume around mid-January next year." Mr Jongen said some compliance review and debt correspondence may still continue between now and the end of 2017. "If people have any questions about a compliance letter they have received, we encourage them to contact us immediately on the phone number in the letter to discuss their situation. "We remind anyone in financial hardship or other difficult circumstances that we can be flexible and look at options like review extensions," he said. In September, the Turnbull government admitted it issued robo-debt recovery notices to 20,000 welfare recipients who were later found to owe less or even nothing. Documents presented to Parliament by Human Services Minister Alan Tudge showed the use of automated data matching processes by Centrelink and the Department of Human Services resulted in 19,980 debt notices being issued, all of which were either reduced or rescinded. Data to March 31 showed a total of 12,524 people had their robo-debt demands reduced to a smaller amount, while a further 7456 people were found to have no legitimate debt. A Centrelink plan to outsource work to 1000 staff from labour hire firms met fierce resistance in November, with the main public sector union warning the department was giving up responsibility for the clean-up after the robo-debt saga. The department will use the contractors across multiple sites, possibly including its Queanbeyan office - described by CPSU national secretary Nadine Flood as "new and scandalous", and said labour hire had no place in the public service. For a year the government has maintained the system works effectively, despite a series of critical reviews including a report from the Commonwealth Ombudsman which found 20 per cent of people sent an initial request for information letter were able to prove they owed nothing to the welfare agency. The probe found demands on recipients were neither reasonable nor fair, highlighting serious deficiencies caused by the department failing to properly consider the issues involved in moving to a system without human oversight.

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