Almost 200,000 Aussies will have robodebt review scrapped
Nearly 200,000 Australians caught up in the controversial robodebt scheme will see their cases dropped by the federal government.
After the scheme was put on hold in 2019 by the then-Coalition government, 197,000 Aussies who were under a robodebt review will no longer be under investigation.
The practice, which ran from July 2015 until November 2019, assessed income data from the Australian Tax Office against fortnightly Centrelink payments and raised $1.73 billion in unlawful debts against over 400,000 people.
While initially hailed as a cost-saving measure to crack down on fraudsters, the government ended up repaying about $751 million, plus interest, wrongly taken from 381,000 people.
The latest announcement will see letters sent confirming the scrapping of the debt to about 124,000 people who received an initial review letter, as well as 73,000 who didn’t know a review had begun at all.
It is understood the debt investigations will be dropped to avoid a hit to public confidence in the social security system and because of the likelihood that any debts uncovered wouldn’t be worth the money needed to pursue them.
Labor Social Services Minister Amanda Rishworth said she was pleased to relieve the stress the scheme caused to those affected by the “fiasco”.
"The Robodebt fiasco is something that should be of deep concern to all Australians. It was meant to save money, however, we know it had a significant human cost," she said in a statement.
"We know as late back as 2016, there were members of the public flagging concerns that these debts weren't right.
"Individuals felt increasingly anxious, depressed, and worried because these debts kept coming and they couldn't understand them."
With over 2,000 Australians dying after receiving hefty debt notices and being harassed by debt collectors, families of the victims have directly blamed the scheme for their deaths.
Bill Shorten, the Government Services Minister, described the scheme as “shameful and illegal”.
"We are removing any doubt that has been hanging over the heads of Robodebt victims for almost a decade," he said.
"These dodgy debts were raised by the former Government in an illegal shakedown against some of the most vulnerable to underpin their discredited surplus forecasts."
The announcement comes as public hearings in a $30 million royal commission into the scheme are expected to commence later this month.
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