Nearly 55,000 fines were issued to remote work-for-the-dole participants in just three months, a Senate committee has heard.

The Community Development Programme (CDP) covers about 35,000 people, the vast majority of whom are Aboriginal.

Participants must work 25 hours a week to receive their unemployment benefits - up to three times longer than other unemployed people.

At a Senate estimates hearing, the Prime Minister's department confirmed 54,997 penalty notices were issued from July 1 to September 30 last year.

More than 200,000 breach notices have been handed out since CDP began in July 2015.

Under the scheme, people who are late or fail to show up to activities are fined a tenth of their fortnightly payment.

For a person on Newstart, which is less than $290 a week, penalties range from about $48 to $57.

Fines have not resulted in poverty: Senator Scullion

Department officials said more than 5,000 people had payments suspended for eight weeks during the quarter.

But the committee heard 94 per cent of these serious breaches were either partially or fully waived.

Indigenous Affairs Minister Nigel Scullion rejected claims that fines resulted in poverty and families going hungry.

"When someone says something in the media about people not being able to feed their kids or being evicted it is a serious concern," Senator Scullion said.

"Each one of those that's been brought to my attention I have investigated.

"I have looked very carefully and examined each one of those and thus far those indicators that have been claimed to be a consequence of the community development programme are in fact incorrect."

The Senate committee last year heard about 90 per cent of people breached under the programme were Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander.

It also heard the Northern Territory recorded more penalties than every other jurisdiction combined.