Hat tip to @DarrenODonovan for letting me know Services Australia have cheekily supplied answers to the senators on the 10,000 unpaused #robodebt notices I first wrote about in @SatPaper a few weeks back right as #auspol + media closing up for the year.
/1
/1
Consider this a highlight reel.
The bulk of unpaused debts were sent to people who weren't actually on social security at the time, meaning they had gone on with their lives. Still, 9,273 debts had to be pulled from debt collectors.
/2
The bulk of unpaused debts were sent to people who weren't actually on social security at the time, meaning they had gone on with their lives. Still, 9,273 debts had to be pulled from debt collectors.
/2
Think of it as a way of punishing upward social mobility. These debts affect a persons' credit rating once they've gotten themselves off social security.
It also means debt collectors start trying to make contact, either by phone or through a field operator. Not fun.
/3
It also means debt collectors start trying to make contact, either by phone or through a field operator. Not fun.
/3
All told the screw up amounts to a $28.8 million error, though the department has written off 67 per cent of the debt and reduced another ten per cent by some amount.
Was this because of income matching and Amato? Not sure. But suggests an error rate of 77 per cent.
/4
Was this because of income matching and Amato? Not sure. But suggests an error rate of 77 per cent.
/4
One of the questions asked was whether the accidental release of the debts may have ended up in Townsville, where debt collection activity was supposed to have been halted.
115 of them did.
/5
115 of them did.
/5
Crucially, the department did not brief the minister about this at the time, though it insists "this issue is unrelated".
Yet it would explain why people were getting letters during a disaster.
/6
Yet it would explain why people were getting letters during a disaster.
/6
This last point is important, as so long as there is a chance, it means Ministers Ruston and Robert had not been properly briefed when they were called to answer questions in the chamber and in doing so told parliament no letters had been sent.
/7
/7
