Government agencies continued to automatically cancel Jobseeker payments, despite new laws saying those decisions can’t be automated. Photo: Julia Gomina.
Job seekers were still having payments unlawfully terminated through automated means long after the horrors of Robodebt and despite warnings against allowing it to happen.
Between August 2022 and July 2024, payments were automatically cancelled for 964 job seekers under the Federal Government’s Targeted Compliance Framework (TCF).
The automatic cancellation system was part of the mutual obligation conditions that job seekers had to meet to continue receiving payments.
Those conditions include actively looking for work and attending job interviews.
But new laws introduced following Robodebt require government agencies such as Services Australia and the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations to consider a jobseeker’s circumstances before payments can be stopped. That consideration must be undertaken by human decision-makers.
DEWR Secretary Natalie James first advised the Commonwealth Ombudsman’s office of her department’s potential non-compliance issue in December 2024.
The department has since taken some positive steps while cancellations are paused, including reviews to assure the integrity of the administration of the TCF and to ensure decisions made under the TCF are lawful.
But Commonwealth Ombudsman Iain Anderson has severely criticised DEWR for not pausing decisions to cancel until July 2024 – 10 months after the department first became aware of the issue.
Some job seekers had their payments automatically terminated, despite the decision to halt payment cancellations.
“Automatic cancellation of vital income support for these job seekers is likely to have a profound, if not catastrophic impact,” Mr Anderson said in his report inquiring into the matter.
“Our investigation found the agencies’ cancellation of income support was not lawful and did not ensure the respective processes and computer systems were complying with the amended legislation.”
The investigation also found that the DEWR Secretary has not yet complied with the statutory requirement to establish a Digital Protections Framework, more than three years after it was legislated in 2022.
The Ombudsman said that was particularly concerning given the findings of the Robodebt Royal Commission, which warned of the serious impact automated processes can have on highly vulnerable people.
The report’s central finding is that DEWR and Services Australia failed to take adequate steps to ensure the TCF was implemented in accordance with the 2022 amendment of the law.
“We also found that the agencies failed to take all of the steps required under those amendments to safeguard job seekers,” the report states.
“These failures are particularly concerning given that since the inception of the TCF, the agencies were aware of, and had been warned about, the risks inherent in automation of income support decisions under the TCF.
“These issues had consistently been raised by advocacy groups and other stakeholders, including the likely disproportionate impact of automated processes on the most vulnerable job seekers.
“Despite their awareness of the risks in automating income support decision-making, and the serious impacts these decisions can have on the most vulnerable job seekers, in our view the agencies failed to adequately interrogate and consult on the impact of the amendments and implement legislative safeguards.
“DEWR also took too long to act once they identified potential unlawful cancellation decisions.”
The Ombudsman made seven recommendations, including to address inappropriate use of automated decision-making, establish processes to ensure lawful decisions, and proactively and quickly rectify automation-related errors that can have large-scale impacts.
“Implementation of the recommendations is an important step towards restoring the confidence of the public, parliament and above all, the people affected, that automated decisions are being made responsibly and according to law,” he said.
“All government agencies can learn from this report the importance of ensuring automated decision-making is aligned with law and policy and is subject to ongoing testing and assurance.”
DEWR and Services Australia have accepted the recommendations.
The Australian Council of Social Service has called on the Federal Government to immediately stop the TCF being used against people relying on income support.
ACOSS CEO Cassandra Goldie said the Ombudsman’s report confirms “serious, systematic and repeated failings” in one of the most important functions of government – providing a safety net for people doing it the toughest in society.
“The public cannot have confidence in the continued operation of the Targeted Compliance Framework,” she said.
“We call on Employment Minister Amanda Rishworth and the Secretary of the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations Natalie James to immediately stop the damaging Targeted Compliance Framework, including all penalties, payment suspensions and cancellations, and provide full and swift compensation to people affected by illegal and unfair payment cancellations.”
