Imagine if banks were issuing hundreds of thousands of false debts against their customers and expecting customers to prove them wrong or pay up.

This is how the government is treating people who’ve received income support payments with its notorious robodebt scheme. Three years since its inception, robodebt continues to inflict people with inaccurate debts, forcing them to prove their innocence or pay back money they may not owe.

People doing it tough in this country live in fear of being hit with these automated debt notices from the government. Tens of thousands of robodebts have been made in error. But it makes little difference to the person on the receiving end. Instead of apologising for the error and making sure it doesn’t happen again, the government continues to put the onus of proof on the individual, many of whom struggle to get by on very little, to prove the government wrong.

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Robodebts hit people even when they’re at their most vulnerable – after the death of a family member, in the wake of a natural disaster, when they’re living on next to nothing and have been getting rejection after rejection in today’s competitive job market. While the government’s own figures show one in five robodebts have been wrong or waived, we know that many more incorrect debts have been paid because people have not been able to provide all of the evidence required.

Robodebt relies on automated averaging to calculate debts where someone has not been able to produce fortnightly income earned from years ago. People in insecure paid work will tell you that by its very nature you often don’t get paid the same amount each week. So if their annual income recorded by the ATO is averaged out over the fortnights they received income support, there will likely be mistakes.

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Robodebt is inaccurate and inhumane. Tragically, we heard recently that a young person took their own life after receiving a robodebt. For a government that has made reducing suicide rates a priority, it does not make any sense to keep this dangerous scheme in place.

This deeply flawed scheme is cruel and contrary to basic legal principles, especially its use of automated averaging to calculate debts, which is currently the subject of a federal court case. It’s also being looked at in two Senate inquiries, which will no doubt highlight even more horror stories, on the back of those already highlighted in the media.

Despite the overwhelming evidence to abolish robodebt, the government refuses to do so, and, as revealed by the Guardian, it has been briefed on a plan to expand robodebt to people who have been classified as “sensitive”. Of course, many people have been left in incredibly difficult situations because of robodebt. However, the department classifies people as “sensitive” for a number of specified reasons, including homelessness, disability, older age and living in a remote area. Robodebt is unfair for anyone subjected to it, regardless of their age or where they live, and it is particularly alarming that this proposal includes people who are homeless and people with disability. Even the suggestion of such cruelty is abhorrent.

The government not only needs to rule out any moves to expand robodebt, it needs to do away with the error-ridden scheme for good and work with the experts to put in place a fair, humane system of debt recovery. Robodebt is an abuse of government power, and it should have never seen the light of day.

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In Australia, everyone should be able to rely on our income support system to get through tough times. Instead, people are subjected to destructive programs like the error-ridden robodebt scheme, in return for paltry payments well below the poverty line, which make it near impossible for people to find suitable employment.

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Robodebt is among a long list of policies from this federal government that degrade and harass people living with disability, caring for children, studying or searching for paid work. Damaging policies such as robodebt join a long list of paternalistic policies imposed on people on low incomes, like the cashless debit card and ParentsNext.

Instead of hunting people down with phantom robodebts, we need our political leaders to focus on getting people through tough times. We urgently need an increase to Newstart, the unemployment payment, which has not had a real increase in 25 years. The current rate of $40 a day is so low that it makes it incredibly difficult for people to put their best foot forward in the job market, especially as so many are also tied up in fighting robodebts.

• Dr Cassandra Goldie is the CEO of the Australian Council of Social Service