JobSeeker recipient comes to parliament sharing her journey to reveal abuse of welfare compliance rules

Cheyanne, a young woman from Ballarat, used FOI to access personal records to demonstrate abuse of rules by employment services

Today Cheyanne, a young woman from Ballarat who relies on the JobSeeker payment, is going to parliament to share her journey with “mutual” obligations and call on politicians to end the harm caused by more than 2.5 million Centrelink penalties issued each year to people with compulsory activities. Cheyanne features in a mini-documentary alongside Jesse, which will be screened at parliament at an event with additional speakers from the Antipoverty Centre, Anglicare Australia and Economic Justice Australia. Speakers will hold a press conference in the Mural Hall at 9:45am.

Included below: comments from Cheyanne, Antipoverty Centre, Economic Justice Australia and Anglicare; details of briefing event.

The Commonwealth Ombudsman was able to review Cheyanne’s records as part of his investigation into unlawful use of the Targeted Compliance Framework, which found significant problems with the use of payment suspensions. However, the government has not acted to pause the use of these penalties.

Facing ongoing barriers to justice, Cheyanne and other welfare recipients are now raising awareness of how penalties are misused by private job agencies by using personal records accessed under FOI in an effort to get the government to intervene. Through this process she discovered a long history of inappropriate and potentially unlawful payment suspensions, which were documented but never acted on by the employment department, who oversee the system.

• The Ombudsman found that compulsory activity requirements have been unlawfully administered and raised concerns over the use of Centrelink payment suspensions.¹
• Around 1 million people on Centrelink payments – JobSeeker, Youth Allowance, Disability Support Pension and Parenting Payment – have compulsory activity requirements.²
• There are more than 2.5 million compliance actions issued each year.³
• The majority of compliance penalties are issued by outsourced employment services providers, a system which costs around $5 billion a year – the government’s second largest private procurement after defence.⁴

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

Cheyanne, a 25-year-old artist and JobSeeker recipient from Ballarat said:

“Getting my job agency and Centrelink records through FOI was so enlightening, because it showed 14 demerits, at least 9 of which were overturned purely because they applied them when they weren’t allowed to. They harassed me to sign a non-compulsory privacy waiver and used compulsory appointments to try and get my payslips, which they aren’t allowed to do.

“Dealing with those payment suspensions and the mistreatment caused me so much stress and wasted my time.

“Forcing people to do these compulsory activities doesn’t make sense, it’s not fair and they shouldn’t be allowed to do it. No one should have the power to stop our Centrelink payments when we rely on them to survive.”

Jay Coonan, Antipoverty Centre spokesperson said:

“We have evidence that Centrelink payments are still being cancelled as a result of compliance activity, despite the government’s promise that those decisions have been paused due to the discovery of more than 300,000 potentially unlawful cancellations.

“How can we have confidence that the Albanese government knows what is really going on when they say that payment suspensions are happening lawfully, when they can’t even get this right?

“This is an antiquated system built on outdated ideology that seeks to punish people for poverty and unemployment, when all we are trying to do is survive while the RBA requires around 4% of people to be unemployed so that they can keep wages low.

“With millions of payment suspensions issued each year, compulsory activities and the welfare cops who have the power to stop Centrelink payments have done too much harm for too long. It must end.”

Kate Allingham, Economic Justice Australia CEO, said:

“We recently received external legal advice that the mass suspensions of social security payments being triggered by the automated computer program that underpins employment services are not a lawful application of discretion as required by legislation. Last year, our own analysis revealed that roughly 310,000 people had had their payments cancelled illegally. Time and time again, our Member Centres hear from people who are not able to pay rent, or who cannot afford to eat, when their payments are suspended without notice. The fact that people’s lives are being put at risk because of catastrophic flaws within an automated Government system should trigger a crisis response, but that is not what we have seen happen.

“The Government has recently committed to a suite of reform measures to employment services, and we urge them to ensure a thorough overhaul of the way automation is used and that discretion is applied by human beings, not a computer program. It is hugely important that any decisions related to people’s essential payments is subject to procedural fairness, oversight and review.”

Maiy Azize, Anglicare Australia Acting Director, said:

“Cheyanne’s story is a reminder that these are not isolated mistakes. They are the predictable result of a system that gives outsourced providers extraordinary power over people who rely on Centrelink payments to survive.

“For years, governments have insisted that compulsory activities and compliance measures help people find work. The evidence tells a different story. People are being churned through the system and running a gauntlet of interviews, reporting, and training courses that are leading to nothing but harm.

“When millions of compliance actions are issued each year, and unlawful decisions continue to come to light, it is time to replace a system built around punishment with one built around support.”

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