Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS) Media Release
Two years on from the findings of the Robodebt Royal Commission, the Federal Government has still not implemented all of its recommendations, and alarming flaws in the social security system remain.
“Robodebt was a shocking abuse of government power that caused severe distress to more than 400,000 innocent people,” said Charmaine Crowe, ACOSS Program Director of Social Security.
Robodebt was a scheme implemented from 2015-2020 that illegally calculated social security debts by averaging annual income earned by people receiving income support over fortnights, resulting in inaccurate debts.
“Many of the victims suffered financial hardship, relationship breakdowns, mental health difficulties and some were driven to self-harm,” said Ms Crowe.
“While the government has made some positive steps to improve social security administration in light of the Royal Commission, including implementing an advocates channel and strengthening the Ombudsman’s powers, there remains a lot more work to do.
“It is particularly concerning that no-individuals involved have been properly held to account for the enormous injustice inflicted on hundreds of thousands of innocent people.”
ACOSS is calling on the Federal Government to adopt the remaining recommendations of the Robodebt Royal Commission, including:
- Legislating a statute of limitations on debt recovery – a key recommendation that remains unaddressed.
- Refraining from recovering debts under review – the default position is to continue recovery even when a debt is under review, rather than pausing automatically. A person can request a pause to debt recovery if it is under review.
- Clarifying protections for people in vulnerable circumstances – it’s still unclear how people in severe hardship are systematically shielded from compliance actions that could worsen their situation.
- Introducing a duty of care – the government still has no formal obligation to ensure people are receiving the correct payment for their personal circumstances.
“These reforms are vital to improving our social security system and ensuring that nothing like Robodebt can ever happen again,” said Ms Crowe.
“We urge the government to take swift action to address these ongoing problems, particularly in light of other failures to properly administer the system, like the Targeted Compliance Framework, where people have had their payments wrongly cancelled.”
In the Robodebt scandal, hundreds of thousands of people were plunged into a state of crisis after receiving a notice claiming they owed the government money from years ago, often in the tens of thousands of dollars. They were told to prove their innocence or pay up.
Many people were driven to suicidal ideation and, according to reports, at least two people died by suicide after receiving a Robodebt. Other victims suffered relationship breakdowns and many refused to apply for social security or accept paid work following Robodebt for fear of incurring another debt.
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It’s not going to happen, is it? They’re just waiting for us to give up.
At the time the RC Report was delivered there was a letter to Governor-General David Hurley from Royal Commissioner Catherine Holmes which said: “There is also an additional sealed chapter that is not part of the bound report. It recommends referrals of individuals for civil and criminal prosecution.”
Subsequently the Royal Commissioner was reported to have said “I do not propose to name the entities to which I have made referrals, because it would only lead to speculation about who had been referred where, which would almost certainly be wrong,” she wrote.
So it does seem that the Commissioner had made referrals [for civil and criminal prosecution] but where that has gone is a mystery.
Terry,
Swept under the political carpet to never see daylight again is my best guess.
This is an utter disgrace, l expected more from a Labor government.
Truth is the software program that was put in place is so pervasive, workers cannot override it, and even when they try a work around the system throws up complex barriers. It has some nasty malicious software in it that I doubt even the creators can fix.
There needs to be a whole system built that remains in human control, not some robo system.
Right into the deep fryers of hush and obscurity,
giving a sealed recommendation to Hurley, let alone Brereton.
I recently read the book ‘Mean Streak’ by Rick Morton, all about this blot on Australia’s political landscape. A challenging read but well worth it to find out all about the disgusting practices initiated by the corrupt LNP at the behest of that piece of absolute scum, Morrison, to CHEAT (no other word for what they deliberately did) the lowest levels of society most of whom rely on welfare payments to survive. And sadly the Australian public seems to already have forgotten about what the government tried to do to them.
Gave evidence to the Melbourne chapter of the Robodebt hearings which was given under Parliamentary privilege at the time in addition to the Class Action via Slater & Gordon; still waiting for the said award to be paid and had my rigged debt refunded.
At this stage, I have lost all faith in any Government as they are all the same; judgemental, parsimonious, self-aggrandising people who give very little value to society at large and are also involved in Insider Trading writ large due to the nature of their work, not to mention their snouts in the trough when it comes to Negative Gearing.
So, to expect anything other than we have got is a bit of a stretch and stench to say the least with such conflicted priorities when it comes to looking after the body politic as a whole.
What was it that Christ once said, ‘A house divided against itself cannot stand’?
heather
Article yesterday in the Guardian, MP Helen Haines is calling for transparency and an update from NACC.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/jul/11/nacc-robodebt-investigation-helen-haines