Thousands of Australians received an unwelcome Christmas present last year, after the government issued debt-recovery letters to Centrelink clients whose benefits, the letters claimed, had been overpaid.
Up to 1.7 million more letters are being sent out by the government as it makes good on its promise to improve the budget bottom line by trying to claim back some of the money paid out to the country's welfare recipients.
Federal Social Service Minister Christian Porter says the system is working 'incredibly well', and has managed to recover $300 million in overpayments since July. Others, particularly among those who have receive the letters, say the system is working anything but well.
The automated system links the annual income data supplied to the Australian Taxation Office with the payments that have been distributed to people through Centrelink. Rather than taking a fortnightly view of payments, as Centrelink does in determining eligibility, it averages out income over 12 months.
So a person who claimed benefits perfectly legally for six months, and then gained employment, could be incorrectly charged for 'overpayments'. It's then up to that person, not Centrelink, to prove that they haven't been overpaid.
While Porter says they have received only 276 complaints out of the 169,000 review letters sent so far, he refused to reveal how many were disputing the repayments. A Centrelink whistleblower told the Guardian they had reviewed hundreds of disputes, and found only 20 where the debts were genuine.
Those disputing the letters report trying to get in touch with Centrelink to resolve the issues, only to find it impossible to get through due to lack of customer service staff. Others have spoken of emotional distress as a result of repeated phone calls from debt collectors, and former Centrelink staff have spoken of dealing with people who were suicidal.
Many have called for the automated system to be scrapped, but the government is standing by it. One of the reasons for this may be that the system is doing just what it's designed to do — trying to force people away from welfare reliance by making it more onerous.
"Technology is far from neutral. It tends to create a framework which ends up conditioning people and limiting their possible options along lines dictated by the most economically and politically powerful."
One of the less discussed aspects of Pope Francis' environmental encyclical, Laudato Si, is its critique of technology as a 'neutral' tool for society. Technology, he argues, is