Centrelink debt notices - Turnbull govt reaches new levels of arse clown-ness

You may be interested to know that one of my nieces is thinking of throwing in the towel, not even going out on stress or through the union, just wants out.

I can't even repeat some of her experiences and the messages coming from her managers and government. One that I can relate is that she is one of those front line people and has been told that she can only refer them to officers that handle the complaint or query. Meanwhile there is a wait time to see these people so she has to suggest to them that they go on line and not all are experienced enough to do that, so she just cops it.

It doesn't help that she is one of those caring people and some of the people are really stressed about their situation.

This has a way to go and can imagine will be just as bad once they start with aged and disability pensions.
 
Any truth to the rumor that News.corp is a parent company to Stargroup ?
Stargroup has just acquired Indue
Indue is in charge of the Cashless welfare card.............



Mouth off about Rupert ?
Oh whoops no card this week.........



The fact i'm even thinking along these lines says more about these campaigners than it does me
 
a) The government is too incompetent to run social services administration

b) The government is capable of negotiating an iron-clad contract with private providers to guarantee improvement in social services administration

Is this Doublethink?


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https://theaimn.com/centrelink-come-normalise-contempt/

The construction of citizens as enemies of Centrelink is engendered by the conservative ideology of Minister Alan Tudge, and senior departmental staff such as DHS secretary Kathryn Campbell, who use as their starting point the proposition that the majority of clients are criminals, or criminals-in-waiting.

(Sound unnervingly familiar? The assumption by the Department of Immigration and Border Protection Minister Peter Dutton and his lackies that asylum seekers are criminals. I said a while back that what they do to asylum seekers they’ll do to Australians).
 
Feb 21, 2002
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Love to see Tudge and/or Porter get nailed.

Alan Tudge may have 'committed crime' by releasing Centrelink client's information, Labor says
By political reporter Henry Belot
Posted 33 minutes ago

One of Australia's leading criminal barristers believes Human Services Minister Alan Tudge — or one of his staff — may have broken the law by supplying a journalist with a Centrelink client's personal information.

Key points:
  • Barrister says it is "reasonably clear" Tudge or one of his staff committed an offence
  • Labor MP referred Alan Tudge to AFP for releasing information about blogger to journalist
  • Mr Tudge has repeatedly said he had legal authority to disclose the information

Robert Richter, a Queen's Council and former chairman of the Criminal Bar Association, believes the disclosure could lead to a prison sentence if it is tested beyond reasonable doubt in a criminal court.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-04-...relink-details-may-be-a-crime:-lawyer/8409152
 
Feb 21, 2002
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Centrelink debt recovery: FOI documents show lack of communication between Social Services Minister and key agencies

Porter is an arse clown

An agency responsible for Centrelink's controversial debt recovery program did not share any documents about it with another key department for nearly a year — even as the program came under immense scrutiny for its failings.

The minister responsible for the scheme during the height of the criticism was also seemingly uninformed, a freedom of information investigation has revealed.

Social Services Minister Christian Porter did not directly receive any written briefings, documents or analysis about the program from Centrelink or his department before publicly proclaiming it was working "incredibly well", documents show.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-04-...-debt-recovery-communication-problems/8419446
 
Whoa whoa whoa

THIS is a public statement on this issue?


Who runs this *******'s communications?

What a deadset ********.
Bit of selective quoting there by Trudge, hope some will take the time to read full report.
 
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What sort of ****wit is Jason McNamara?

The Greens senator Rachel Siewert told the general manager of the Department of Human Services’ integrity process, Jason McNamara, that “clients are reporting fact and you’re comparing that against an average”. She said sometimes the ATO did not even identify what period it had taken the average from, making it impossible for recipients to check their own data.

But McNamara responded that both sets of data were “facts”.

https://www.theguardian.com/austral...ieval-system-should-be-abolished-due-to-flaws
 
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Only a few problems identified by the Ombudsman

The report identified key issues including:
  • The accuracy of debts raised, in particular those that were calculated using “averaged” income data.
  • The 10% recovery fee.
  • The transparency and usability of the OCI system.
  • The problems faced by customers when gathering evidence and presenting their case.
  • The adequacy of the department’s assistance and communication with customers.
  • The adequacy of staff training and communication to support customers using the system.
  • The department’s approach to complaints.
  • The adequacy of the department’s project planning and governance mechanisms.
https://www.theguardian.com/austral...t-reveals-multiple-failures-in-welfare-system
 
Feb 21, 2002
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Almost half of all Centrelink robo-debt cases were sent to private debt collectors, and they lied about it

Centrelink has used private debt collectors to pursue 43% of the debts raised by its controversial “robo-debt” system, a rate vastly higher than normal. New figures show 56,504 of the 132,764 debts raised by the system between July and March were handed to two firms contracted by the Department of Human Services – Probe Group and Dun & Bradstreet. That’s significantly higher than the 12.5% of non robo-debt cases referred to private debt collectors in 2015-16.

The other main government agency routinely collecting debts, the Australian Taxation Office, only used private debt collectors in 17% of income tax debt cases by mid-2016.

Private debt collectors are working on commission for Centrelink, although the government has refused to disclose what rate it is paying them. That is a markedly different approach to the ATO, which uses a flat fee, reducing the financial incentive for private firms to pressure debtors into repayment.

And they lied about the figures

The new figures, provided to the Senate inquiry on Tuesday, appear at odds with previous statements by the department about its use of external debt collectors. The department has previously intimated that it rarely used private firms to pursue debts but has never given any figure specifically related to the robo-debt system. The department told Guardian Australia in January: “External collection agents are only used to recover a small proportion of total debts.”

https://www.theguardian.com/austral...-debt-notices-sent-to-private-debt-collectors
 
On sunrise it was just disclosed the department of human services overpaid $2.84B in payments last year.

Unbelievable!

It’s time to privatise the administration of this important service as it is clear the current government employee model doesn’t work.
 
Also with the Christmas/New Year period of shut downs. I have been lucky my old company ( who shut down in July) still had the records from 2014.

Go in Monday and hand in the paperwork. See what happens.

Sadly with the roll out of the NDIS, those that once experienced great personal service under the DSC will now experience what your going through.

It is hard to believe we are treating the disabled and those with mental incapacitation like this.
 
The whole system is buggered and this government is actively trying to make it worse with this sort of ideologically driven nonsense, they're spending enormous amounts of money on something that looks to be a demonstrable failure, and on the face of it seems racist.
https://www.theguardian.com/austral...rise-in-kimberley-towns-with-cashless-welfare
Domestic violence has increased significantly in the East Kimberley since the introduction of the cashless welfare card, casting doubt on the government’s claims of its success.

Police data obtained under freedom of information law shows domestic-related assaults and police-attended domestic violence reports increased in the Kimberley communities of Wyndham and Kununurra since trials began in April 2016.

Melbourne University researcher Elise Klein, who has studied the card’s impact in the Kimberley, said the data showed there was no clear evidence to support making the card permanent.

Klein lodged the freedom of information request for the police data. She said the information had taken too long to be made public.

She believes there is a link between the card, financial hardship, and family violence.

“There’s huge amounts of money being spent here, and I guess the real question is, what other wonderful things could be put in place instead of this card?” Klein said.

But the Department of Social Services said there was “no evidence” the cards caused an increase in family violence.

“The number of domestic violence incidents reported in East Kimberley in 2016 is likely to have increased because more stringent police reporting meant incidents that were previously not recorded were now included in police reports,” a spokeswoman said.

The cashless welfare card is a controversial form of income management, quarantining 80% of a welfare recipients’ payment to a restricted card, which can only be used at certain businesses.

The card is designed to prevent the spending of welfare money on alcohol, drugs, and gambling, reducing violence and harmful behaviour as a result.

Nawoola Newry has lived in Kununurra much of her life. She believes the card, which some of her family use, has done nothing to address the community’s problems.

Instead, it’s restricted the rights of community members, without increasing jobs, training, or employment opportunities, she said.

“I don’t believe that it’s reduced alcoholism, I don’t believe it’s reduced crime, I don’t believe it’s reduced domestic violence,” she told Guardian Australia.

“There’s a lack of services, there was all these wrap-around services that were promised … we don’t see any of them on the ground.”

Late last year, the government seized on an independent evaluation of the cards, which found they were successful in addressing substance abuse, violence, and other harmful behaviour.

Then human services minister, Alan Tudge, used the report to announce new trial sites in the Kalgoorlie-Boulder region of Western Australia and Bundaberg in Queensland.

The cards were also to be made permanent in the Kimberley and the second trial site in Ceduna, South Australia.

Tudge said Kalgoorlie-Boulder and Bundaberg experienced similar problems to the East Kimberley, including alcohol-fuelled violence, which the card had helped reduce.

“And that is too many kids born effectively brain damaged from foetal alcohol spectrum disorder, too many women getting bashed because of drunk men boozing up on the welfare dollar, and it is just too much violence generally,” Tudge told Perth radio.

“This card helps to stop some of that because it stops the welfare dollar being spent on the booze and spent on the drugs.”

Orima Research, which conducted the evaluation, had access to the police data on the Kimberley but did not include it in its report on the cards.

Some in the community have expressed strong support for the card. The Wyndham advisory group to the government said they had witnessed a dramatic turnaround in substance abuse and gambling in the community.

“Since the card has been implemented in our community we have been impressed by the positive results witnessed firsthand in reducing these harmful behaviours and assisting families to care for their children responsibly,” the group wrote in a submission to a Senate inquiry.

Last year local government leaders and Wyndham Aboriginal leaders Bianca Crake and Jean O’Reeri told Guardian Australia that the cashless welfare card was the best available option to reduce alcohol and drug abuse, domestic violence, and sexual abuse in their communities.

The government has also repeatedly said the card would take some time to address entrenched and long-term problems, and that it was not a “panacea” for social ills.


The Kimberley Land Council, representing local Indigenous communities, is strongly opposed to the card.

In a submission last year, the council’s deputy chief executive, Tyronne Garstone, said Aboriginal people and communities were often “penalised by punitive, experimental and top-down policies regarding an issue that impacts the whole of society”.

Garstone said the card was a “sledgehammer” approach that did little to address the root causes of social problems.

Klein said the evidence used to justify the government’s plans for a broader rollout was deeply flawed.

The methodology and analysis contained in the Orima Research report has been criticised by the Australian National University researcher, Janet Hunt, among others.
 
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On sunrise it was just disclosed the department of human services overpaid $2.84B in payments last year.

Unbelievable!

It’s time to privatise the administration of this important service as it is clear the current government employee model doesn’t work.


yeah great - let's watch a company like fking Serco come in and win the tender - the govt will still be spending the same amount, but these *s will be taking a massive cut and less to the people who need it
 
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yeah great - let's watch a company like fking Serco come in and win the tender - the govt will still be spending the same amount, but these ****s will be taking a massive cut and less to the people who need it
The other side is puts a barrier between the Government and the clients. '' not our problem ring SERCO''
 
yeah great - let's watch a company like fking Serco come in and win the tender - the govt will still be spending the same amount, but these ****s will be taking a massive cut and less to the people who need it

Can't think of a better organisation to run an administration operation?

Perhaps a local group who knows their community?
 
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yeah great - let's watch a company like fking Serco come in and win the tender - the govt will still be spending the same amount, but these ****s will be taking a massive cut and less to the people who need it

Those new Serco Centrelink call centre folk are being paid a dollar above the minimum wage.

Attracting the brightest and best, I'm sure they will give excellent customer service.
 

DaRick

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I'm not sure why people think that privatising government services will magically lead to 'more efficient' results.

Private concerns acting on behalf of the government can be very incompetent indeed, especially if they find a way to rort the system for extra bucks. The JobActive and Disability Employment Services represent sad examples, where for-profit and non-for-profit firms in my experience take too much credit (and thus too many subsidies) for finding jobs for their clients when they really did nothing.
 
I'm not sure why people think that privatising government services will magically lead to 'more efficient' results.

Private concerns acting on behalf of the government can be very incompetent indeed, especially if they find a way to rort the system for extra bucks. The JobActive and Disability Employment Services represent sad examples, where for-profit and non-for-profit firms in my experience take too much credit (and thus too many subsidies) for finding jobs for their clients when they really did nothing.

almost $3b in wrong payments in centrelink
plus labor claims $19b of waste in our health system


hmmm I wonder what the total value would be in other departments like defence? then what % does that equate to of the overall government budget?


Personally I would have far more confidence in the RAC or similar than centrelink
 
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