Thread by @strangerous10

#RobodebtRC One of the early findings was that DHS made a decision that those who don’t respond to their initial Centrelink Debt notice, regardless of the reason, would be deemed as being
“Satisfied with the information”
& that the Debt was Accurate. 1/2

Former DHS Manager Scott Britton tried to excuse this as only being part of a “pilot”
Angus Scott KC not satisfied, forces him to concede it was used as part of their illegal #Robodebt program where they assumed anyone who doesn’t respond, accepts the illegal debt. 2/2

They did run a Pilot, but it went ahead & used in Robodebt.
Within that Pilot, Britton admits they pressed ahead with this method of assuming Debt was accurate, without even a ph call & that 58%, yes, 58% of those they sent letters in pilot, didn’t respond. They still went ahead

So they said let’s contact a bunch of customers as a pilot.
58% did not respond

100% of those (in the 58%) were assumed to agree the debt was real by not responding (even if didn’t receive it)
& then used that method in Robodebt.
Phone calls came after debt was assumed accurate

Concluding Britton’s evidence, he summed up what he thinks went wrong, by saying the “drivers” of the program were “Sound” but that
“It all happened very quickly”
& systems were not equipped to handle it “as expected”

Intentions for the Robodebt Scam were good, he says. 😒

Oh and he also couldn’t recall a damn thing, either. 🙄