Commonwealth Ombudsman opens new robo-debt investigation
Summary
The Commonwealth Ombudsman will be opening another investigation into the Department of Human Services (DHS) contentious data-matching process for welfare debt recovery.One large error in the system dubbed "robo-debt" was that it was incorrectly calculating a recipients income, basing fortnightly pay on their annual salary rather than taking a cumulative 26-week snapshot of what an individual was paid."In our view, it is entirely reasonable and appropriate for DHS to ask customers to explain discrepancies following its data matching activities as a means of safeguarding welfare payment integrity," the Ombudsman said at the time."The fact that the Ombudsman has now seen fit to investigate the matter again is proof that the robo-debt program is deeply flawed and must be shut down and replaced with one that is timely, accurate, and fair.A DHS spokesperson told ZDNet that as part of a data-matching review, people are "given ample opportunity to explain their circumstances prior to determining whether there is a debt".