" Robo-Debt " Hard Line !

Centrelink distributes public money by way of pensions and other entitlements and various computer programmes are constantly checking for over payments.  What happens next is the issue of a repayment demand if those computers detect an anomaly and this has coined the phrase " Robo-debt "  !

Out in the business world, debt recovery swings into action if we fail to pay our bills.  The merchant usually hands the debt to a collection agency and we receive a demanding letter.  If we fail to pay in the allotted time the matter goes to court, where proof of debt is established and recovery action   is authorised. We then find the sheriff or a bailiff at our door.

That is not the way things work at Centrelink.  The onus is on the recipient to prove the computers are wrong and for the most vulnerable people that is an almost impossible task. All entitlements are enmeshed in a thicket of regulations which require interpretation - and those computers are quite capable of getting it wrong.   We hear regular tales of anguish from folk who are told they have a debt and Centrelink is merciless in pursuing recovery.

Now it seems that recovery process is going to be ratchetted up a notch.  Robo-debts come with a demand that arrears be repaid within fourteen days and Centrelink is now proposing that failure to pay may invoke the withholding of tax return money and the debtor might be prevented from leaving the country for an overseas holiday.

Centrelink is threatening to get tough and use its powers to confiscate the owing money from bank accounts and to turn to that ancient procedure used last century when debts were progressively reduced by forced reductions from the debtors wages.    This is termed the application of a " garnishee ".

There is conjecture in legal circles that this Centrelink hard line is nothing more than " bluster :".  They know their methodology will not stand up to legal scrutiny and those amounts claimed are no more than " ambit claims ".   Often, the vulnerable are forced to accept a reduction in their entitlements to progressively reduce the debt, which may be no more than a computer interpretation made without human oversight.

One of the problems with this robo-debt is that the power balance is very much in Centrelink's favour. If Centrelink  reduces or ceases the income on which a huge section of society depends, they can find themselves destitute.  It is essential that Centrelink be forced to contain its debt recovery procedure to exactly the same legal constraints imposed on the business community.