A former member of Australia’s government review tribunal has described the Department of Human Services’ automated debt recovery program as extortion.
The ‘robo-debt’ scheme matches income data from the ATO with income reported to Centrelink by welfare recipients, and if a discrepancy is detected, recipients are required to offer payslips and bank statements, often from years earlier.
Terry Carney, former member of the review tribunal, says the conduct of the Department of Human Services’ is abysmal.