The Morrison government is ramping up its robo-debt operations despite problems with incorrect debt notices, launching a new data-matching initiative using Medicare data to look for "discrepancies" between people's Centrelink claims and medical records.

A gazette notice quietly released by the Department of Human Services last week outlined the new data-matching program, which aimed to identify social security fraud by matching "identities and details held in Centrelink records with those held in Medicare records".

Stuart Robert has apologised for a robo-debt notice sent to a dead man's mother. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

Minister for Government Services Stuart Robert confirmed on Tuesday that as many as one in five debt recovery notices issued by his department may be incorrect, and apologised to a woman who had received a debt notice for her dead son.

"Because of the size of the debt being uneconomical to recover and the length of time, the department should have simply waived the debt," he said during Question Time.