Those who closely follow the news will believe that the dreaded Robodebt has been slain, “dead, buried and cremated”, with the Federal Government agreeing at the door of the court on 16 November to settle the Robodebt class action. But it’s not as simple as that.
First, we only know the barest outlines of the agreed settlement – that the Government has agreed to pay out $832 million, plus agreeing to forgo $400 million in claims against recipients of social security benefits (Plaintiffs) for overpayments. Even that is at best half true: the “pay out” is really a repayment of money to plaintiffs – money which those plaintiffs have paid to the Government in response to letters of demand (Debt letters). Nearly all of it has already been repaid (the repayment announcement was made six months ago). The agreed settlement also includes $112 million in damages to Plaintiffs, which is inclusive of an unspecified amount for legal costs – which will presumably go to the Plaintiffs’ lawyers, Gordon Legal.
Most news report have failed to make clear that the settlement is not absolutely a done deal – it is subject to approval by the Federal Court.
Beyond the bare outlines above, we don’t know the details of what has been agreed between the Plaintiffs’ Lawyers and the Government. The Government has not issued any statement clarifying what has been agreed – and what has not. That seems like the response directed by someone from marketing rather than a lawyer’s response.
Bravely, 7 News (Gus Bruno) has published “Robodebt class action: Everything you need to know about the $1.2 billion lawsuit brought by Gordon Legal”. It seems a very good effort at explaining everything you need to know. Bruno says:
“The robodebt automated welfare recovery scheme matched annualised pay information from the Australian Taxation Office and income data reported to Centrelink to claw back overpaid welfare payments.”
That is, the ATO told Centrelink that I had earned $52,000 in the tax year. Centrelink deduced from that that I had earned $1,000 each and every week – no more and no less. If I had told Centrelink that I earned less than that in a particular period – because I was overseas or unemployed for example, Centrelink would come after me on the basis that for that period I had under-declared my earnings for the purpose of calculation of social security benefits. Centrelink has used ATO information for years, but Bruno says that in 2016 the Coalition made the system a fully automated one – Debt letters would be sent out whenever the robot found a discrepancy between the figures – no human checking was done.
Bruno says that one-in-five of these Debt letters were based on false information; about 470,000 debt letters were sent out; the Federal Court ruled the system unlawful in November last year. The Robodebt class action stemmed from that ruling.
As recently as 31 July 2020, the Secretary of the Department of Social Services, Kathryn Campbell told the Senate Committee on Community Affairs that she did not know what “Robodebt” means. The Government’s pet name for Robodebt seems to be “the Online Compliance Intervention System”.
There is useful information on the class action on the Gordon Legal website, but for a full understanding, a certain amount of inference is required. First, the class action seems only to cover cases where the calculation of the “debt” was based entirely on income averaging from the ATO’s data of peoples’ annual income. So for example, if in your case Centrelink used income averaging but did it from a pay slip or from information provided by your employer, you are not part of the class action. Even if Centrelink primarily relied on ATO information, but had some other corroboration such as from pay slips, it seems that you are not covered by the class action. But will you even know which is the case?
In August one recipient of social security benefits who paid money to Centrelink in response to such apparently automatically generated Debt letters, having heard about the class action enquired whether they would be entitled to a refund. Centrelink responded: “You are not eligible for a refund. You have not been identified as eligible for a refund as our records have not had an Income Compliance review between July 2015 and November 2019. Most Centrelink debts don’t relate to income compliance debts”.
As a pro bono lawyer, I act for half a dozen recipients of social security benefits who have been hit with Debt letters by Centrelink which seem to be based on false assumptions. None of my clients is in the class action. So the bottom line is that many disputes will continue. So people who have “repaid” a dodgy debt should take action unless they have a document that specifically says they are part of the class action.
According to Gordon Legal, if since 4 May 2020 you got a document entitled “Opt Out Notice – Federal Court of Australia – ‘Robodebt’ (Social Security Debt Collection) Class Action (VID1252/2019)” (the “Group Member Notice”), it is safe for you to assume that you are a Group Member. The inference seems to be that if you didn’t get that, you are not covered by the class action.
The Australian Council of Social Service has called for a proper inquiry into “this extraordinary abuse of government power”. According to ACOSS CEO, Cassandra Goldie: “We all need an assurance that a terrible scheme like robodebt can never be repeated. We also need people responsible to be held to account in an open and transparent manner.”
Let’s have an inquiry. But it is premature to regard Centrelink’s “terrible schemes” as being entirely past tense.
Lawyer, formerly senior federal public servant (CEO Constitutional Commission, CEO Law Reform Commission, Department of PM&C, Protective Security Review and first Royal Commission on Intelligence and Security; High Court Associate (1971) ; partner of major law firms. Awarded Premier’s Award (2018) and Law Institute of Victoria’s President’s Award for pro bono work (2005).
Comments
9 responses to “Robodebt is far from dead, buried and cremated”
This is disgusting I’m sorry ,but the poor get more poor ,while the rich gets richer from those on centrelink blunder. I’m sorry but no body lives in our everyday routine and budgeting every fortnightly just to called up randomly for NO EXPLANATION you owe us money cause we over paided you ,really this has happened to me for many years even to the point of missing the children supplement in July ..
I’m a single mum ,so I get on a budget schedule and bam all of a sudden I owe money and miss out on certain supplement to support my child in school items and personal items as clothes,shoes ect…
So now your saying they win and rob more innocent people cause they can ..
Take afew months and live on our lives and see what our daily routine and how we all budget to live each week to week ,cause once that call comes in you owe this amount , not only as parents but people in general who are on a regular budget, like me having anxiety and depression having to recover what I’ve lost and to make others arrangements for schooling items and bills and everything else….
Please take a walk in our shoes for afew months ,to see and feel the struggle as parents, people in general have to live through….
Their is always a wrong action behind doing it’s called CONSEQUENCES!
THE LAW GOES BOTH WAYS…
We pay you back from a lie ,you can’t receive the truth and do right by us …VERY POOR BEHAVIOUR!
I received a letter saying I owed 33,000 u cant imagine what I went through I had paid them 7500 being a single mum. They were taking out of my payments 160 a fnight. I nearly lost my rented home due to this.
People are cheating Taxpayers if they understate their income
“The Federal Government agreeing at the door of the court on 16 November to settle the Robodebt class action. But it’s not as simple as that.”
Thank you Ian, it’s not. Of course, with our version of Trump, Morrison, believes that he is always right & not to be challenged, he forgets that this administration & its ruthless pursuit of gouging people pushed into
hardship & penury for the sake of feathering the nests of himself & other rent seekers.
·Years of stress, worry & anxiety. I was part of this, & had received yet another debt notice for $4,459.00. I have proof of abuse since 2000, which was provided to Gordon Legal with that detail, only to be advised that this was outside the guidelines & to seek further ‘advice’ from SSRV. The amount above was repaid by Centrelink as part of the Class Action & I am seeking the remainder.
·Years of abuse of bullying via regulatory regimes of financial, medical, physical, emotional platforms have caused undiagnosed PTSD in all people subjected to this viscous pillage. It’s the equivalent of a war crime, as this has been a war on people who are deemed to be less than their counterparts, let alone their equals. No amount of meaculpa will ever erase the pain, financial constraints the subsequent shame & guilt of being forced into poverty, being made to beg like trained seal & dealing with private Job Agencies that were nothing more than forceful compliance with zip accountability, who claimed ‘success’ fees with every casual job that I ever gained by my own endeavours.
·Continuous obfuscation by Centrelink, JSA providers, local Federal MP’s who claim that they represent the working class when all they represent is their own interests. Their Electoral Allowances alone are less than the equivalent that most of us impacted are expected to live on, & until these supposed representatives are subjected to the same circumstances & expectations, removed from office & have their pensions wiped they will never be trusted again, that goes for both Liberal & Labour. Labour had the chance to close this down from 2007-2013 & did nothing. https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/2020/11/22/robodebt-compensation-morrison/? “This is the same Prime Minister who has his fingerprints on every stage of this; from overseeing its conception when he was social services minister, to introducing the plan as a “cost-saving measure” then accelerating it as treasurer, to continuing it as PM.”
·This is the same man who taken ‘advantage’ of every tax payer scheme to fill his rent seekers pockets from Defence Rorts, Sports Rorts, Community Rorts, Jobseeker Rorts, Job Maker Rorts, Homebuilder
Rorts, in addition to the longstanding Negative Gearing Rorts, Franked Credit Scheme Rorts, & every other malfeasance that is yet to be actually discovered that has been quietly hidden by the Canberra Press gallery & other sections of the MSM. https://www.crikey.com.au/2020/11/10/abc-sordid-canberra-public-interest/
·The total removal of Negative Gearing alone would re-fund Education, Health & decent pensions all round for those who had their lives & livelihoods stolen from this malfeasance & deliberate maladministration.
·This is a criminal cartel, Morrison, Porter, Tudge, & Roberts who are responsible for some 2000 people’s deaths by suicide before we even consider the ongoing mental anguish. https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/nov/21/robodebt-related-trauma-the-victims-still-paying-for-australias-unlawful-welfare-crackdown?;
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/fess-up-robo-debt-victims-want-government-ministers-to-face-grilling-20201116-p56f
·I hope The Federal Court throws this rotten compromised deal out the door & that Gordon Legal asks itself why it decided to take this settlement in the first instance, for in this instance justice is very blind indeed. Sounds more like a fait accompli.
Ian, thank you for an informative and interesting summary of the Robodebt issue. The most staggering realisation is that after the government has been exposed for running a fraudulent money collection system running into literally billions of dollars, it is still determined to continue this fraud on many victims who were not part of the court case. And it seems for the very reason of protecting its ministers and public servants. Justice for the victims doesn’t appear to be a consideration. So much for being a “model litigant” and simple common decency and ethics.
Why would you believe anything more Kathryn Campbell said after her pass/agg response to the name ‘Robodebt’? Contemptible.
And a credit to Ian, as most press articles are too polite to mention her role at all.
Be that as it may, the belligerent Secretary and her cruel Ministers will never face the slightest penalties. Which leaves me afraid, a future bunch will do something even worse.
I got the letter about the class action but yet to get refunded and enquired and they said to me I am not due for a refund, but if I recieved that letter being part of the class action should I be recieving my refund??
Kind regards
Roslyn
Is this how one is expected to act to progress in Scomo’s public service?
The ripples from this appalling policy spread beyond the immediate victims in this case to the Ministers directing and selling the policy and to the independence of the public service and to senior public servants who might like to rely on the just following orders defence.
In the Brereton report, we have seen what happens when people are willfully blind to what is going on around them. More power to whistleblowers.
Why is not the role of ministers the subject of questions in Question Time? The PM cannot be allowed to dispute the premise of questions directed to him personally.