Employment Minister urged to stop Centrelink compliance framework after potentially illegal payment cancellations

The Albanese government is being urged to halt a system tasked with ensuring social welfare recipients comply with their obligations after technical issues resulted in the potentially illegal cancellation of about 1000 payments. The Targeted Compliance Framework outlines requirements for Centrelink recipients like applying for work and attending job interviews. However three IT glitches between July 2018 to August 2023 meant some recipients had their payments decreased or cancelled altogether. Services Australia have also identified 10 deaths associated with the cancelled payments. Workplace and Employment Relations Minister Murray Watt is now being called on to stop the program. Speaking at senate estimates on Wednesday, Department of Employment and Workplace Relations secretary Natalie James apologised profusely for the glitches. “I absolutely and unreservedly apologise on behalf of the department that we cannot have full confidence in this system delivering what it’s intended to deliver,” she said. “It’s not acceptable, and it is my responsibility and not the minister’s (Murray Watt), in this respect, although he may wish to add his own commentary but I will say that I am responsible, legislatively and administratively, for overseeing this process.” Ms James also confirmed the department was undertaking reviews into its IT systems and decision making processes “to ensure they’re being lawfully made”. However she admitted there were a “number of examples where the system is not operating in alignment with the legislative framework and associated policies”. “This is a framework that can lead to decisions that have a profound impact on people’s experience of the employment services system and, critically, their social security payment,” she said. “It is a serious and pressing concern to me that we take steps to ensure the integrity of the framework.” Australian Council of Social Service chief executive Cassandra Goldie called on Senator Watt to halt the entire TCF framework given the legality concerns. “Since its introduction in 2018, ACOSS has consistently opposed the compliance framework and formally warned successive ministers about the serious harm it causes, including homelessness, relationship breakdown and destitution,” she said. “The minister acknowledges the compliance framework is overly punitive and in need of a complete overhaul, and cannot say if it is operating legally, yet chooses to continue harming people by refusing to have the system suspended.” Senator Watt said he was “confident” payments were no longer getting cancelled and said work to overhaul the services was now underway. However he said it was not the government’s position to suspend or cancel the TCF. “I do believe that we’ve been transparent in how we’ve dealt with these matters, and when I say ‘we’ I mean the government and the department, in terms of its responsibilities,” he told the committee. “Since this issue was first brought to my attention after I became the minister, my focus, along with the department’s, has been to fix these problems.” Ms James also said it was her “top priority” to ensure the department addresses the issues, and said people were “entitled to expect better from the government”. “So I am incredibly sorry for the impact that this has had on individuals and I apologise for the fact that we hadn’t identified these things earlier and acted on them more quickly,” she said.