The Commonwealth Ombudsman has accused Services Australia of failing to act on an error stopping parents from accessing child support, even if they were legally eligible.
The Ombudsman said it was possible staff at Services Australia had known about the error for several years, calling it “extremely concerning.”
Services Australia was one of the subjects of the 2023 Royal Commission investigation into the illegal Robodebt scheme.
The Department of Social Services said it would fix the legal “anomaly”.
Details
Services Australia falls under the Department of Social Services (DSS).
It operates programs and services like Medicare, Centrelink, and child support.
Services Australia told the Ombudsman it is its “longstanding policy” that “parents with little or no careshould not be entitled to child support”.
In 2008, legislation determined parents with more than 65% care of a child have no obligation to pay child support to the other parent.
However, the Ombudsman found this legislation also had a loophole overruling this determination in some cases.
“A parent providing less than 35% care may be entitled to receive child support if the other parent is providing 65% of the care or less,” the Ombudsman said.
In an investigation report published this week, the Commonwealth Ombudsman said Services Australia and the DSS were aware of this loophole for six years.
The Ombudsman “found that the action taken by Services Australia and DSS to remediate this issue has not been proportionate or reasonable,” calling the time period “extremely concerning.”
“At the time of finalising this report, Services Australia remains knowingly non-compliant with the law,” it said.
The Ombudsman made six recommendations to the organisations, including providing compensation to those impacted by the error.
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Robodebt
From 2015 to 2019, the Government used a welfare debt collection system called Robodebt, carried out by DSS and Services Australia.
The system checked welfare recipients’ reported fortnightly income against annual income declared on tax returns.
If this comparison suggested they had been overpaid, a debt notice was issued without human oversight.
Multiple errors with the system led to over $1.7 billion in debt notices being incorrectly issued. The scheme was determined to be unlawful.
A Royal Commission into Robodebt was launched in 2022.
A final report handed down in 2023 linked the scheme to at least three deaths by suicide. It criticised officials for giving “little thought” to the impact of the scheme on welfare recipients.
A $1.8 billion compensation package was distributed to victims between 2020 and 2022.
The Government also agreed to provide an additional $475 million in compensation to settle the Robodebt class action appeal.
Comments
In a statement to TDA, Services Australia General Manager Hank Jongen said the agency has “made progress... in our handling of issues such as this”.
Jongen noted that of 1.1 million child support customers, “approximately 16,000 parents may have been affected” over six years.
A DSS spokesperson told TDA the Government is “drafting legislation to address this technical legal anomaly” that “will be introduced at the next parliamentary session.”
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