Australians who owe money to the federal government will be banned from leaving the country until they repay the funds, in a move to claw back $800m in debt.

Travels bans have been issued over the past decade to parents who did not make child support payments and were extended in June to former welfare recipients who have refused to repay the finance.

The human services minister, Michael Keenan, says 20 orders have been issued, and his department is looking to step up efforts to recoup funds owed by more than 150,000 people who no longer receive welfare.

“If you received a payment you were not entitled to, you have an obligation to repay the money you owe and we will use every tool at our disposal to ensure it is recovered,” Keenan said in a statement on Saturday.

He said people currently receiving welfare or making repayments would not be targeted by the measure, but former recipients who refused to pay back their debt would also be charged interest.

If you have a robodebt, you're now banned from leaving Australia until it's repaid. We know many robodebts are raised in error https://t.co/s0Tv5PVNmg — Asher Wolf (@Asher_Wolf) September 21, 2018

The rate of repayment would be measured against an individual’s circumstances and those in hardship could defer their returns, Keenan said.

He said they would target people who consistently refused to pay back money owed.

“It’s very important people repay money to the Australian taxpayer,” he added. “The money that funds the welfare system has been earned by hardworking Australians and they expect us to make sure that system operates with integrity, that people get the support that they need and that they’re not getting more out of the system than they’re entitled to.”

The minister said the travel bans would be issued only for large debts where efforts to recoup the money had previously failed.

But Labor’s shadow health spokeswoman, Catherine King, was wary of the measure and wanted to see more detail.



“We had the robo-debt scandal where people in fact did not have debts at all and were absolutely hounded by this government,” she said.



“The government would want to be very, very careful, that it knows absolutely that these people do have debts, that this isn’t another debacle in the making.”