New funding to enable Centrelink payment cancellations ignores rot at the heart of welfare compliance

More public servants will not protect welfare recipients from rampant abuse by unaccountable, outsourced welfare cops

Today the government has announced it will provide $44 million in funding to try and reduce the rate of unlawful Centrelink payment cancellations under the Targeted Compliance Framework.¹ The TCF rules enforce compulsory activities for people on the JobSeeker Payment, Youth Allowance, Parenting Payment and Disability Support Pension. ²

The funding will increase the number of staff available to review and confirm decisions to cancel a person’s welfare payment at Services Australia. The funding also includes a pitiful amount for “targeted compensation” to people who have their payment unlawfully cancelled. The government has not yet revealed how many people may have had their payment unlawfully cancelled, though estimates suggest it could be around 300,000. Background on unlawful administration of welfare compliance is available here: bit.ly/TCF_background_v2

A second report from the Commonwealth Ombudsman last week smashed the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations and their approach to compensation, and the handling of systemic harm caused by Centrelink payment suspensions and cancellations, and DEWR’s lack of oversight of the outsourced providers who take billions a year in public money. More Services Australia staff will do little to address the systemic harms exposed in the Ombudsman’s report. The agency has no involvement in the oversight of providers or in identifying and reversing unfair and unlawful payment suspensions, and turns people away when they seek help with these problems. Around 2.7 million payment suspension notices are issued each year.

If you have previously had your Centrelink payment cancelled, or are having problems with unfair Centrelink payment suspensions or provider behaviour, you can contact us via help@welfarecopwatch.org

Antipoverty Centre spokesperson Jeremy Poxon said:

We cannot welcome more money to make welfare payment cancellation decisions – it is a distraction.

Having more staff in Services Australia will make zero difference to the hundreds of thousands of people who have their payment put on hold by an unaccountable outsourced providers every year. It will not stop the threats, the bullying, abuse and the unlawful payment suspension decisions that derail people’s lives.

Adding an extra step before cutting someone off their Centrelink payment just to make cancellation decisions lawful will not end the devastating effects of ripping away poverty level income from people who are trying to survive.

The Ombudsman has already called out the so-called compensation scheme for its failings. It is a joke that forces people to jump through unnecessary hoops just to get backpay, with no actual compensation for the harm caused by unlawful decisions.

This pitiful attempt to paper over the harm compulsory activities cause will not make the problems exposed in the Commonwealth Ombudsman’s damning report disappear. Both non-profit and for-profit providers are doing immense damage and the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations is enabling it to continue unabated.

This response shows that Minister Rishworth is not fit for the job. Neither the minister nor her department seem able to grasp the scale of the mess they’re in. Continuing with payment suspensions is more evidence that the financial viability of welfare cops is more important to this government than the wellbeing of people who depend on Centrelink payments to live.

All forced activities for people on Centrelink payments must be abolished.

Media contact: email media at antipovertycentre.org or call/message 0413 261 362 via Signal