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Fix The Real Problems With Centrelink (Read 1711 times)
whiteknight
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Fix The Real Problems With Centrelink
Jan 13th, 2018 at 7:54am
 
Turnbull Govt needs to fix the real problems with Centrelink
Jan 12, 2018  Community And Public sector union.

The Turnbull Government has once again announced it will crack down on people using our social security system but is failing to deal with the real problems with Centrelink.   Sad

Human Services Minister Michael Keenan said today that the Turnbull Government is ‘committed to cracking down on welfare fraud more than ever before’ after reports that the Department of Human Services overpaid $2.84 billion last year.

CPSU National President Alistair Waters said ‘The problems in DHS are largely of the Government’s own making – poor quality IT systems and cutting 5000 permanent jobs means huge waiting times for call centres and 55 million phone calls going unanswered each year.’   Sad

‘Because so many of the errors and overpayments are the result of staff cuts and system problems, the priority for the Turnbull Government must be to increase staff numbers and fast track IT upgrades, to improve service standards and reduce mistakes. Most people want to do the right thing, and Government should be making it easier to do that.’

‘It should be quick and easy to use the system and comply with the rules, but frankly the Turnbull Government has made it very hard for people to use Centrelink. And the robo-debt program generated tens of thousands of false debts for people who had done nothing wrong – it’s not surprising that this has shaken the public’s trust in the system.’

‘DHS does incredibly important work and when it comes to detecting overpayments and raising debts, people have a right to expect speed and accuracy. But the Turnbull Government is letting us all down – and causing huge stress to DHS staff – by continuing its program of outsourcing and staff cuts.’

‘The robo-debt disaster shows that it’s pretty easy to get caught up in the Centrelink system – that’s why it’s so important to have enough staff, backed up by good IT systems. Robo-debt shows us what the real problem is here – the Turnbull Government is relying on systems that don’t work and then cutting staff in the mistaken belief that broken computers can do the work of trained public servants. So how can Australians have trust and confidence in the social security system?’   Sad

The Turnbull Government should learn from the robo-debt debacle and invest properly in world-class IT systems, with enough permanent staff to oversee them. They should reverse the cuts to permanent staff, stop outsourcing work to companies like Serco, and provide DHS with enough resources to provide the kind of service that Australians need.
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Dnarever
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Re: Fix The Real Problems With Centrelink
Reply #1 - Jan 13th, 2018 at 8:00am
 
I Don't think that Centrelink is savable unfortunately.
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Dnarever
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Re: Fix The Real Problems With Centrelink
Reply #2 - Jan 13th, 2018 at 8:16am
 
Quote:
The Turnbull Government has once again announced it will crack down on people using our social security system


Over the last 40 years the Liberals answer to everything has been to blame the unemployed while giving unneeded tax cuts and hand outs to the wealthy.
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Grappler Truth Teller Feller
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Re: Fix The Real Problems With Centrelink
Reply #3 - Jan 13th, 2018 at 10:57am
 
"the Turnbull Government is relying on systems that don’t work and then cutting staff in the mistaken belief that broken computers can do the work of trained public servants."

It's not a mistaken belief - it's a deliberate choice.
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“Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.”
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Bam
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Re: Fix The Real Problems With Centrelink
Reply #4 - Jan 13th, 2018 at 11:34am
 
Quote:
Human Services Minister Michael Keenan said today that the Turnbull Government is ‘committed to cracking down on welfare fraud more than ever before’ after reports that the Department of Human Services overpaid $2.84 billion last year.

I call bullshit. Overpayments have no statute of limitations, the same as murder or sexual assault. Underpayments have a 90 day limitation before they are no longer claimable. Why do you think this robodebt scandal is pursuing alleged "debts" that are six years old?

The system is set up to fail. Reporting is day by day, not pay by pay. Did you work as a casual on Monday with reporting on Wednesday and payday on Thursday? Good luck getting the amount right; no payslip is apparently YOUR fault. This is why mistakes are very common.

The Parliament can cut alleged overpayments by $2 billion a year, simply by changing the reporting to actual income received, not estimated income. Of course, this means underpayments would also be reduced by a similar amount.
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UnSubRocky
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Re: Fix The Real Problems With Centrelink
Reply #5 - Jan 14th, 2018 at 2:45am
 
The day I can complain about the amount of income tax I lose is the day I know I don't need Centrelink.
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Bam
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Re: Fix The Real Problems With Centrelink
Reply #6 - Jan 14th, 2018 at 4:29pm
 
Quote:
Fix The Real Problems With Centrelink

Start by restoring its correct name: Department of Social Security.
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You are not entitled to your opinion. You are only entitled to hold opinions that you can defend through sound, reasoned argument.
 
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Valkie
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Re: Fix The Real Problems With Centrelink
Reply #7 - Jan 14th, 2018 at 6:48pm
 
I wonder just how much ex politicians, senior public servants and other hangers on take out of the system.

No asset test, no reduction based on the millions in bribes and deals they have brokered.
No reduction when working for hundreds of thousands and still pulling a "pension"

These are the true drain on the system, not the poor peasant who lost his job and needs to feed his family.

How much do these politicians, senior public servants and assorted hangers really cost?
This is what needs to be made public and stopped.
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I HAVE A DREAM
A WONDERFUL, PEACEFUL, BEAUTIFUL DREAM.
A DREAM OF A WORLD THAT HAS NEVER KNOWN ISLAM
A DREAM OF A WORLD FREE FROM THE HORRORS OF ISLAM.

SUCH A WONDERFUL DREAM
O HOW I WISH IT WERE TRU
 
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juliar
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Re: Fix The Real Problems With Centrelink
Reply #8 - Jan 14th, 2018 at 8:06pm
 
This is the sort of thing that makes the malingering Welfare Dependent Lefties shudder with fright. You really CAN smell their fear!!!
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UnSubRocky
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Re: Fix The Real Problems With Centrelink
Reply #9 - Jan 16th, 2018 at 12:51am
 
juliar wrote on Jan 14th, 2018 at 8:06pm:
This is the sort of thing that makes the malingering Welfare Dependent Lefties shudder with fright. You really CAN smell their fear!!!


Last year, I was asked to pay back $500 in overpayment because I allegedly under-reported. Considering that I did job searches, meetings with my job network provider, reported my income (apart from the alleged underreporting), and did external study as part of my mutual obligation. I was fired from a job because I was objecting to one staff member sexually molesting a child under the age of 16. The vexation here is that even though the workplace changed my separation certificate to a redundancy, the fact that I initially received a misdemeanour as the reason for being fired meant that Centrelink would not pay me Centrelink (to live on) for a whole 8 weeks. I was left to go without an income for 2 weeks, before I finally landed a job with a competitor industry. Even then, it was the generosity of the company that allowed me enough hours to get on with things until I recommenced receiving a partial welfare benefit.

To ask me to pay back $500 when I figure they still owe me $2000 for the 2 months I went without, it peeves me off no end. I even told the lady, who was just doing her job, that this seemed hypocritical. I did not use those words. Yet, I conveyed that point across.

Meanwhile, I suppose that people of certain circumstances can continue to receive more welfare benefits than I, even though I do more. Whereas the Centrelink will not look at them to repay their useless existence to the taxpayer. I hope you are right, juliar. I hope Centrelink goes after those fraudsters and gives people like me some leniency from here onwards.
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Bam
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Re: Fix The Real Problems With Centrelink
Reply #10 - Jan 16th, 2018 at 3:54pm
 
UnSubRocky wrote on Jan 16th, 2018 at 12:51am:
juliar wrote on Jan 14th, 2018 at 8:06pm:
This is the sort of thing that makes the malingering Welfare Dependent Lefties shudder with fright. You really CAN smell their fear!!!


Last year, I was asked to pay back $500 in overpayment because I allegedly under-reported. Considering that I did job searches, meetings with my job network provider, reported my income (apart from the alleged underreporting), and did external study as part of my mutual obligation. I was fired from a job because I was objecting to one staff member sexually molesting a child under the age of 16. The vexation here is that even though the workplace changed my separation certificate to a redundancy, the fact that I initially received a misdemeanour as the reason for being fired meant that Centrelink would not pay me Centrelink (to live on) for a whole 8 weeks. I was left to go without an income for 2 weeks, before I finally landed a job with a competitor industry. Even then, it was the generosity of the company that allowed me enough hours to get on with things until I recommenced receiving a partial welfare benefit.

That's a pretty serious problem. Here is a decision being made solely on the word of the employer without any chance for the falsely accused to present any defence, without proper due process and no avenue for appeal. If the system was fair, you would have been able to sue the employer for industrial defamation. In addition they should have been in a lot of hot water for covering up child molestation.

The system isn't fair - employers can pretty much sack people with impunity and proceedings for unfair dismissal is not a real deterrent because the penalties are insufficient and the time frame for bringing proceedings is far too tight.
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You are not entitled to your opinion. You are only entitled to hold opinions that you can defend through sound, reasoned argument.
 
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Grendel
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Re: Fix The Real Problems With Centrelink
Reply #11 - Jan 16th, 2018 at 5:40pm
 
One of the main problems with Centrelink is the complicated old systems they have to work with and the continuous ad hoc changes that get made to it.
Another problem not directly a Centrelink problem is the stupidity of various governments and their attitudes to those on welfare particularly the Unemployed.
Fix those 2 problems and we are well on our way to having a world leading Welfare System.
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Sir lastnail
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Re: Fix The Real Problems With Centrelink
Reply #12 - Jan 16th, 2018 at 5:55pm
 
juliar wrote on Jan 14th, 2018 at 8:06pm:
This is the sort of thing that makes the malingering Welfare Dependent Lefties shudder with fright. You really CAN smell their fear!!!


but i bet your libbo mates can see an opportunity to profit from the unemployed by running one of those shonky work for the dole scams painting garden gnomes or a job network scam. neither of which creates one additional job for the billions that the taxpayer forks out each year Sad

They are the real culprits that Turdball should be going after to re-cooperate over-payments.
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In August 2021, Newcastle Coroner Karen Dilks recorded that Lisa Shaw had died “due to complications of an AstraZeneca COVID vaccination”.
 
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Bam
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Re: Fix The Real Problems With Centrelink
Reply #13 - Jan 16th, 2018 at 7:25pm
 
Grendel wrote on Jan 16th, 2018 at 5:40pm:
One of the main problems with Centrelink is the complicated old systems they have to work with and the continuous ad hoc changes that get made to it.
Another problem not directly a Centrelink problem is the stupidity of various governments and their attitudes to those on welfare social security particularly the Unemployed.
Fix those 2 problems and we are well on our way to having a world leading Welfare Social Security System.

Fixed it for you. The governing legislation is the Social Security Act and the enabling referendum was the Social Services referendum (1946), so Social Security is the correct term.

I agree with what you said otherwise.

I would add to it the scrapping of the massive waste of money that is Work for the Dole, Community Development Program, privatised job services networks, the PaTH program and other similar waste, reinstate the Commonwealth Employment Service and put the billions of savings into creating more jobs. Restoring the correct name for the Department of Social Security also needs to be done, to reverse the political expunging of the concept of social security from the Australian vernacular that Howard started. I would undo all of the dysfunctional "reforms" of the last 22 years and reinstate Labor's Working Nation policy; that was scrapped by the Coalition because it was working too well for them.
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UnSubRocky
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Re: Fix The Real Problems With Centrelink
Reply #14 - Jan 16th, 2018 at 7:51pm
 
Bam wrote on Jan 16th, 2018 at 3:54pm:
UnSubRocky wrote on Jan 16th, 2018 at 12:51am:
juliar wrote on Jan 14th, 2018 at 8:06pm:
This is the sort of thing that makes the malingering Welfare Dependent Lefties shudder with fright. You really CAN smell their fear!!!


Last year, I was asked to pay back $500 in overpayment because I allegedly under-reported. Considering that I did job searches, meetings with my job network provider, reported my income (apart from the alleged underreporting), and did external study as part of my mutual obligation. I was fired from a job because I was objecting to one staff member sexually molesting a child under the age of 16. The vexation here is that even though the workplace changed my separation certificate to a redundancy, the fact that I initially received a misdemeanour as the reason for being fired meant that Centrelink would not pay me Centrelink (to live on) for a whole 8 weeks. I was left to go without an income for 2 weeks, before I finally landed a job with a competitor industry. Even then, it was the generosity of the company that allowed me enough hours to get on with things until I recommenced receiving a partial welfare benefit.

That's a pretty serious problem. Here is a decision being made solely on the word of the employer without any chance for the falsely accused to present any defence, without proper due process and no avenue for appeal. If the system was fair, you would have been able to sue the employer for industrial defamation. In addition they should have been in a lot of hot water for covering up child molestation.

The system isn't fair - employers can pretty much sack people with impunity and proceedings for unfair dismissal is not a real deterrent because the penalties are insufficient and the time frame for bringing proceedings is far too tight.


The issue was that the manager fired me because I wrote an objection on facebook about the treatment I was receiving after I witnessed the sexual harassment against the child. Because I caught the smug bastard running his finger up and down the side of the face of the 15-year-old boy, he decided to make up rubbish about me perving on his Medusa-looking step-mother-to-be. Because I objected on facebook about what happened -- but not naming names or where I worked -- I was given the arse the very next day, just prior to my shift.

A mediation with Fair Work Australia revealed that I neither broke any workplace regulation posting to facebook. Nor were there any grounds to be terminated from my job. Not that I care. Things went from bad to worse there. The person concerned was fired for some reason and had to take a $20,000 a year pay cut in another unrelated job. And because the company shut down, you feel somewhat vindicated/redeemed since you know you did not cause the downfall of the company. Aaaannnd, the dipstick head office people that argued the point against me decided to come up to bark at the 'fenceline of my workplace' (talk to me in person in a smug way) as if they had a legal leg to stand on, never mind the fact that they were so far in debt it was a surprise they could afford the airfare up to town here.

The difference between the last employer and my final employer at the business was that the previous employed used security cameras to keep an eye on staff. He would have caught the staff member in no time, and replaced him. The head office that took over the company just went about business without worrying about employee safety. When Centrelink decides that they want to save money by basing suspended Centrelink payments on the word of a lying company, then you know there is a problem. Btw, the 'victim' of the sexual harassment turned out to be gay, and was not objecting to the treatment. He even friended his molestor on facebook. Go figure.
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