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West Australian
3 days ago
- Business
- West Australian
Secret Deloitte review into automated JobSeeker system warns of 'instability,' 'unintended impacts'
A $439,000 report kept under wraps by the government has issued urgent warnings over the system responsible for managing vulnerable Australians on JobSeeker, with fears the program punishes those struggling and is prone to error. The damning report comes after the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations (DEWR) and Services Australia were found to have illegally cancelled the JobSeeker payments of 964 recipients between April 2022 and July 2024. A review completed by Deloitte, which was received by DEWR on June 18 and remained unpublished until inquiries from NewsWire on Thursday, said repeated modifications and updates of the system had created at 'excessively convoluted' code base which 'lacks architectural integrity' had become 'difficult to manage. Commonwealth Ombudsman Iain Anderson said he feared it would have likely resulted in 'profound if not catastrophic' effects on Australians struggling financially. The mistaken terminations, which have been likened to robodebt 2.0, occurred after the controversial automated Targeted Compliance Framework (TCF) responsible for ensuring JobSeeker recipients met their mutual obligations repeatedly malfunctioned. A lack of a 'comprehensive design register' also meant any changes require 'extensive manual intervention across multiple databases and workflows,' resulting in a high 'likelihood of system instability and unintended impacts on participant case outcomes'. Additionally the Statement of Assurance said the TCF has 'not evolved or matured' since it was introduced under the Coalition government in 2018, and 'lacks the risk-based proportionality and participant centred design' found in similar programs used by the ATO, Australian Border Force and the NDIS. In another scathing finding, Deloitte, who were paid $439,142 to undertake the review, said other large government IT systems which weren't used by vulnerable Australians placed 'greater emphasis on human case management to respond to complex participant needs'. Criticisms were also made of the TCF's technical makeup. The report said the volatility of the program had been 'exacerbated by the widespread use of unconventional technical practices', like hard-coded fixes. However, the two out of three of the glitches which resulted in the nearly 1000 JobSeeker payment terminations were 'embedded during the original 2018 system'. Despite amendments passed in 2022, which called for greater discretion to be used before the cancelling of payments, Deloitte said there was 'no evidence' that the 'capacity for discretionary decision-making functionality was embedded in the system' ever. The review called on DEWR to limit or suspend further modifications to the system to 'constrain the risk of further disruptions,' and limit the introduction of new defects. If necessary, changes to comply with legislative updates should be 'thoroughly assessed by policy, legal and technical authorities to ensure legislative and policy compliance and anticipated outcomes are maintained'. DEWR must also urgently strengthen its current internal review processes to ensure negative case determinations are 'supported by appropriate evidence' and lawful under current legislation. Welfare advocates, like the Anti-Poverty Centre, the Australian Council of Social Services (ACOSS), and Economic Justice Australia have repeatedly criticised the use of the TCF, calling for the punitive measure to be removed. Mr Anderson, the Commonwealth Ombudsman also singled out DEWR secretary Natalie James had been so slow to act, taking 10 months April 2022 to September 2023 to pause the automated cancellations after it was raised by external legal advisers. As of March 21 this year, reductions and cancellations in income support payments have been paused pending ongoing legal and IT reviews, however suspensions have remained. The department has also yet to implement the Digital Protections Framework, despite legislative requirements passed in 2022, with Mr Anderson writing: 'We do not consider a delay of over three years, coupled with an indefinite commitment to future action, is reasonable'. Employment and Workplace Relations Minister Amanda Rishworth and the DEWR were contacted for comment.
Canberra Times
03-06-2025
- Business
- Canberra Times
Ombudsman expands scope of investigation into JobSeeker cancellations
"The secretary of the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations has made a number of decisions to pause parts of the [Targeted Compliance Framework] while reviews are under way and is committed to ensuring the system operates as it should."
The Guardian
21-03-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
More than 10,000 jobseeker payments may have been wrongfully reduced or cancelled, government says
Thousands of people may have had their social security payments wrongly reduced or cancelled because the mutual obligations system was not 'operating in alignment with the law'. On Friday, the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations (DEWR) announced it had paused more payment reductions and cancellations, with more than 10,000 people understood to be affected. It comes after the federal ombudsman launched an investigation into the compliance framework's functioning while the full mutual obligation system undergoes three separate reviews. Mutual obligation requirements include jobseekers attending employment provider meetings and applying for jobs in return for receiving payments. After jobseekers receive five demerits, they enter the 'penalty zone', where they may have their payment cancelled. Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email In a statement, the DEWR secretary, Natalie James, said she had 'paused some parts of the systems'. 'The work underway by my department has identified examples where the system is not operating in alignment with the law and policies or is not operating with the rigour that I expect,' she said. 'In taking these decisions, I have considered my legal duty to administer the law and take decisions as intended by the law. 'I also have considered my current level of confidence in how the system, and decision-making processes within the system, is operating and the impact of these decisions on people. Of critical importance is that people subject to these frameworks are often our most vulnerable, including those who are homeless, First Nations people and people with a disability.' Welfare groups were quick to condemn the system, calling for an end to mutual obligations and the targeted compliance framework. The ACOSS executive director of policy and research, Jacqueline Phillips, said it was a 'massive and fundamental failure of government'. 'It is very disturbing that in the aftermath of robodebt, governments continue to make unlawful social security decisions on such a scale affecting people with little means or power,' she said. Antipoverty Centre spokesperson and jobseeker recipient Jay Coonan called for the dual obligation system to be abolished. 'This whole process shows that 'mutual' obligations are an immoral and destructive tool,' Coonan said. 'We will not stop until they're abolished and those responsible for these policies are held accountable.' In February, the peak body for community legal centres, Economic Justice Australia (EJA), wrote to the employment and workplace relations minister, Murray Watt, to ask for an immediate suspension of the penalty zone system. The EJA CEO, Kate Allingham, said it was positive that DEWR was reviewing the system. However, she said the reviews needed to be made public, and any compensation to jobseekers who had payments cut illegally should be paid immediately and automatically. 'While these reviews show the government's commitment to fixing errors going forward, people need to be compensated for the significant harm that has already been caused,' Allingham said. 'The burden must not be on individuals to prove their payments were incorrectly cancelled. The government has a duty to ensure everyone impacted is fully compensated without being forced through an arduous and unworkable appeals process, like what we saw with robodebt.'
The Guardian
04-03-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
Australia's mutual obligation system is broken. Can apologies and reviews save it from suspension?
The Albanese government is facing calls to suspend the use of a system designed to punish jobseekers who do not meet mutual obligation requirements after officials told a Senate estimates hearing that it cannot have 'confidence' that the system is functioning lawfully. The Department of Employment and Workplace Relations issued an apology in Senate estimates last week over failures of the system and said it had to repay more than $1.2m to 1,280 jobseekers due to an IT system error. It comes after the federal ombudsman launched an investigation into the functioning of the compliance framework, while the full mutual obligation system undergoes three separate reviews. Jobseekers are required to meet mutual obligation requirements – such as attending meetings with a employment provider and applying for jobs – to continue to receive their payments. After jobseekers receive five demerits in the mutual obligation system, they enter what is called the 'penalty zone', where they may have their payment completely cancelled. The IT system was incorrectly extending the period of time a participant remained in the penalty zone, not exiting jobseekers from the penalty zone, or putting them into the penalty zone when they should not be. In July 2024, the department found the payments of a further 964 people had been cancelled unlawfully, prompting the government to pause all cancellations while it undertakes a review into 'all payment cancellation decisions which may not have been validly made' between 8 April 2022 and 4 July 2024. Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email Officials on Wednesday confirmed reports in The Saturday Paper that when the government went to repay individuals, it found 10 had died. The government said it did not know if these deaths were related to the payment cancellations. The department is now also conducting two more reviews: one into the legality of the targeted compliance framework, the mechanism which ranks and penalises jobseekers when they are not meeting mutual obligations requirements and places them into the penalty zone, and an external review by Deloitte, which is investigating whether the mutual obligations system is functioning properly. The department secretary, Natalie James, said she could not say 'categorically' if the system was functioning legally. 'The statement makes it clear that I have concerns about the alignment between the legal framework and the system,' she told the Senate estimates hearing last week. 'That is, in part, what has driven the legal review.' Asked by Penny Allam-Payne, a Greens senator, if she would apologise for the harm against 'the most vulnerable', James said she did so 'unreservedly'. 'I absolutely and unreservedly apologise on behalf of the department that we cannot have full confidence in this system delivering what it's intended to deliver,' she said. 'It's not acceptable, and it is my responsibility and not the minister's [Murray Watt's], in this respect … I am responsible, legislatively and administratively, for overseeing this process.' Mutual obligation requirements are sometimes paused during severe weather events and national emergencies such as the pandemic. On Thursday, the peak body Economic Justice Australia wrote to Watt to ask for an immediate suspension of the penalty zone system. EJA's CEO, Kate Allingham, said the system was so complex and involved 'so much jargon' that 'even the people that are working within the system do not understand it'. Allingham said there were 'too many cooks' administering the system: Services Australia manages the payments while the department is responsible for mutual obligation requirements, which are subcontracted to private companies. If a person has an issue they may be bounced between departments and providers and could go without payments until the issue is resolved. Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion 'They all work in total silos of each other,' Allingham said. 'So you end up with this very complicated situation and the person that loses out every time is the individual. 'People should not be living on reduced payments or having suspended payments or payments cancelled when the government has no faith in the legality of the system.' Currently, there are about 1.8m suspensions each year, with approximately 500 payment cancellation decisions and 5,800 payment reductions occurring annually under the targeted compliance framework. Jeremy Poxon, an antipoverty activist, said payment cancellations caused untold harm and the compliance framework and mutual obligation requirements should be abolished. 'These are most like disadvantaged people in our society who live in a pretty constant fear of the threat of a payment suspension or a cancellation,' Poxon said. 'It's so patently absurd and cruel to continue a system going when you're not when you have no confidence that it's operating legally.' The commonwealth ombudsman is also investigating whether income support payments cancellations are being made in a way that is lawful, reasonable and fair, following a complaint by the Australian Council of Social Services (Acoss). Cassandra Goldie, the Acoss chief executive, said they had 'consistently opposed the compliance framework and formally warned successive ministers about the serious harm it causes'. The ombudsman, Iain Anderson, said if he finds the department made 'decisions that were not made in a lawful, fair and reasonable manner' he will recommend changes to the system or remedies for affected jobseekers. 'The ombudsman cannot compel an agency to agree to its recommendations, but in practice most recommendations are accepted,' he said. In estimates, James said if she was concerned about the application of the framework after the reviews were completed, she would take the 'necessary actions' to ensure the departmentwas working within the law. 'This remediation could be by process or system changes, or legislative amendment. The assurance and review processes which are underway will enable me to make relevant decisions,' she said.
