The police and Centrelink took part in a mass mail campaign threatening welfare recipients if they provided inaccurate information

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

Australia’s peak community services body has described the government’s repeated threats to jail welfare recipients as appalling, while reports emerge of flaws with a new automated system designed to detect overpayments.

The government has ramped up the rhetoric on welfare debt this week, warning that its new automated compliance system would allow it to easily and quickly detect overpayments.

Human services minister Alan Tudge appeared on A Current Affair on Monday and threatened to jail those who owed Centrelink money.

“We’ll find you, we’ll track you down and you will have to repay those debts and you may end up in prison,” he said.

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It follows a mass mail campaign by police and Centrelink this year that similarly threatened welfare recipients with jail if they provided inaccurate information.

The letters, obtained by Guardian Australia, target welfare recipients in specific geographic areas, warning that the government’s welfare fraud taskforce, taskforce integrity, was “currently working in your community” and that providing the wrong information could constitute welfare fraud, and result in a “criminal record or a prison sentence”.

Australian Council of Social Service chief executive, Cassandra Goldie, criticised the repeated threats to welfare recipients, saying the overwhelming majority of people receiving payments did the right thing.

“It is appalling that the minister for human services is telling people on the lowest incomes three weeks before Christmas that if they have a debt with Centrelink they may go to prison,” Goldie said.

“This is false, highly irresponsible and risks causing a huge amount of unnecessary stress and anxiety amongst people who are already doing it tough.

“We are not a police state and people should not be made to feel like they are doing the wrong thing by claiming a social security payment.”



The letter, with an AFP logo, which was sent to welfare recipients warning them about providing inaccurate information

Only a minority of welfare recipients are found to have intentionally committed welfare fraud each year.



Last year just 0.018% of those receiving payments were investigated for fraud, while 996 cases were referred to prosecutors and just 29 cases resulted in indictable charges, according to Acoss.

Tudge said this week that the new automated compliance system, which began in July, was initiating 20,000 compliance interventions a week, a jump from 20,000 a year previously, and said it would see $4.5m in debts raised each day.

The system automatically compares Centrelink information with other records, including those from the tax office, eliminating the need for manual checks by departmental staff.

But it has already encountered problems. Independent MP Andrew Wilkie said his office had received reports of incorrectly issued debt notices of up to $6,500 from six years ago.

He said recipients were being given three weeks to prove they had not been overpaid, and back it up with documentation.

“Clearly this new IT system is badly designed and must be sorted out,” Wilkie said. “The human services minister, Alan Tudge, should drop his Grinch act and suspend the program until Centrelink is confident of its system integrity.”

“We don’t treat people as guilty until proven innocent in Australia, unless you’re Centrelink it seems.

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The general manager of the Department of Human Services, Hank Jongen, said there were appeal rights available to those who felt the department had made the wrong decision.

He said most people had not intentionally made errors in their reporting to centrelink.

“If a person thinks a decision is wrong they have a right to ask for a review, and have further appeal options,” Jongen said.

“It is also important to highlight that there are a small number of people who do set out to intentionally defraud the welfare system,” he said.

“For that reason, the department reminds customers that there are serious consequences for intentionally providing the department with inaccurate information.”