Today harsh Centrelink penalties return; Minister Rishworth refuses to say she has confidence the system is lawful.
Antipoverty Centre || Today the Antipoverty Centre is releasing its new “Mutual” obligations survival guide for welfare recipients who have compulsory activity requirements, including people on JobSeeker, Youth Allowance, Parenting Payment and the Disability Support Pension. .
The guide is being published to coincide with the Albanese government’s reintroduction of harsh penalties today that allow for Centrelink payments to be completely cancelled without human oversight, regardless of whether a person has employment income. Tomorrow the Australian Unemployed Workers’ Union will hold a protest against the return of cancellations.
Media contact: 0489 181 230 / media at antipovertycentre.org
Get print copies of the guide
Included below: comments from the Antipoverty Centre spokesperson and AUWU helpline volunteer; AUWU protest details; background information on unlawful administration of penalties that will resume; crisis line contact information.
Introducing the new “Mutual” obligations survival guideThe system of compulsory activities is largely implemented by outsourced employment services and costs the public $5 billion a year. For years, welfare recipients have worked to expose widespread abuse and mistreatment by these organisations, but the Albanese government’s priority has been to not only keep the punishment machine, but to reward the worst offenders with more contracts.
The Antipoverty Centre produced the “Mutual” obligations survival guide because government resources that should help people understand their rights aren’t just inadequate – they actively obscure important rights information, are riddled with doublespeak and undermine people’s confidence to stand up for themselves against unfair treatment. A perfect example is DEWR’s new Easy Read information – an important accessibility requirement for many people in the system including people with an intellectual disability, thousands of whom have compulsory activity requirements. These new materials do not contain any information at all about people’s rights when dealing with employment services.
Our new guide is something we wish we had for ourselves to help us deal with employment services, and that other welfare recipients in our community have long been asking for. It explains in clear terms how people can and can’t be penalised, with rules and tips to make the system safer – with references to government policies that are often ignored by organisations that are paid to administer the rules.
It’s for people with compulsory activities, community sector workers or anyone who wants to help – including the many workers in the system who are concerned about being forced to do harm by their employers through policies that mandate unfair use of the rules. This resource won’t fix what are fundamentally cruel policies, but we hope it helps to fight unfair treatment in the face of government’s abdication of its responsibility to protect the people it forces into these services.
Reintroduction of penalties on 26 October
Centrelink payment cancellations related to “mutual” obligations have been paused for more than two years after it was revealed that the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations and Services Australia were unlawfully administering them (See background information below including compensation scheme). Despite this pause, automated systems and outsourced employment service providers were still able to apply payment suspension penalties for the entire period that the system – called the Targeted Compliance Framework – has been under scrutiny.
The Antipoverty Centre is a member of the DEWR stakeholder reference group, which has unanimously rejected the decision to bring back these penalties as the department has not adequately demonstrated how its processes will address unfair and unlawful decision-making investigated by the Commonwealth Ombudsman.
Last week employment minister Amanda Rishworth refused to say she has confidence in the system in response to questions from InnovationAus about reintroduction of these penalties. A week prior, she declined to answer a question about the TCF at a press conference, saying the legality of the system is “a matter for the secretary”.
Antipoverty Centre spokesperson Jay Coonan said:
It is completely absurd to be dialling up penalties at a time when the RBA is determined to increase the number of unemployed people and the legal foundations of the system are in doubt.
We want to know why Minister Rishworth is refusing to answer questions about whether she has confidence that the TCF is operating lawfully. It should be her highest priority to ensure that inflicting pain on people in poverty is ended entirely, not making it lawful, but at the very least she should be taking responsibility for upholding the law.
We were forced to create our new guide to help people survive the welfare compliance regime because government policy is being used to harm who rely on Centrelink payments, so we are doing what is in power to try and help.
We’re left with no choice when the government seems to care more about the profits of private companies and charities who make money from this system than the people who are hurt by it.
The “Mutual” obligations survival guide is designed to cut through the bullshit and give people confidence that when something sounds like a lie, they can point to the evidence that it is. We encourage everyone in the community to use it and share it with as many people as possible.
Artist, welfare advocate and Australian Unemployed Workers’ Union helpline volunteer Mel Fisher said:
I can’t wait to hand the survival guide out, this is what people need to know.
It’s important that I and others trapped in this system know our rights. There’s so much dishonesty that comes from job providers and we’re often given conflicting stories. This will also make it easier for me to find the information I need to give advice to others when they call the AUWU helpline.
I’ll be using the guide to make sure I can cut through the bullshit that I’m told and can actually get the advice I need.
Background on the TCF and unlawful administration
Around 1 million people who rely on Centrelink payments are forced to undertake compulsory activities like attending appointments with employment services, doing useless “training” and forced unpaid labour programs like Work for the Dole. At the same time, the RBA pursues policies that ensure there are a minimum number of unemployed people at all times, and poverty that is inflicted through the low rate of welfare payments creates additional barriers to work.
Welfare compliance penalties may affect people on JobSeeker, Youth Allowance, Parenting Payment and the Disability Support Pension who are in the Workforce Australia or Inclusive Employment Australia programs. They form part of the Targeted Compliance Framework. The system costs $5 billion a year and is the second largest government procurement after defence.
The penalties arising from compulsory activity requirements can include: suspension of payment, accrual of demerit points, partial or full payment reduction, and a 4-week preclusion from re-applying for a payment. Many of these penalties, particularly payment suspensions, are imposed in breach of the rules due to abuse or incompetence by employment services. There are currently concerns over the lawfulness of payment suspensions which the government has not addressed.
All payment cancellation penalties related to “mutual” obligations have been paused for more than two years after it was revealed that the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations and Services Australia were operating sections 42AF, 42AH, 42AG and 42AM of the Social Security (Administration) Act 1999 unlawfully.
Prior to these penalties being paused, more than 80,000 payments were cancelled in one year. In addition to cancellation penalties, more than 2 million payment suspension notices are issued each year, with more than half being overturned, prompting the Commonwealth Ombudsman to raise concerns over whether payment suspensions are being applied lawfully. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are significantly over-represented among those who receive payment cancellation penalties, and receive around 30 per cent of all payment suspensions.
The discovery of unlawful administration by DEWR led to two Commonwealth Ombudsman investigations and these rules being paused, including cancellations for:
- section 42AF persistent mutual obligations failure, meaning a person accrued 5 demerit points in 6 months;
- section 42AH unemployment failure, meaning a person left their job;
- section 42AG work refusal failure, meaning a person turned down a job offer; and
- section 42AM a person did not reconnect with an employment service within 28 days of their payment being suspended for non-compliance.
The Commonwealth Ombudsman noted in his second investigation that the employment secretary is able to exercise discretion not to cancel payments in these circumstances, however neither DEWR nor Services Australia have a process to ensure that a person has other income or will not be thrown into financial crisis or homelessness if their payment is cancelled.
Backpay and compensation scheme open
If a person had their Centrelink payment cancelled between 2020 and 2025 for any of the above reasons, they might be owed money. There are potentially more than 300,000 people affected, and those who experienced financial or non-financial loss may be eligible for backpay. While some people will be proactively invited to apply for backpay, there is no need for anyone to wait – they can apply now.
More information and an application form are available on the DEWR website: https://www.dewr.gov.au/assuring-integrity-targeted-compliance-framework/compensation-cancellation-income-support-payments-under-targeted-compliance-framework
Crisis support and counselling services
If you need support you can seek guidance, counselling or crisis help from the below organisations or talk to someone you trust.
- Suicide Call Back Service – general: 1300 659 467
- Roses in the Ocean – peer support: 1800 777 337
- SANE Australia – general: 1800 187 263
- 13YARN – for First Nations people: 13 92 76
- National Counselling and Referral Service – for disabled people: 1800 421 468
- Headspace – for young people: 1800 650 890
- QLife – fo LGBTQIA+ people: 1800 184 527
- Full Stop – for people who have experienced sexual harassment and assault: 1800 385 578
- Embrace Mental Health – multilingual service: embracementalhealth.org.au
- MensLine – for men: 1300 789 978
- Brother to Brother – for First Nations men: 1800 435 799
- National Debt Helpline – assistance with negotiating reductions for overdue bills and debt: 1800 007 007
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