Formed 1997 (1997) Founded 1997 | Type Program Motto Giving You Options | |
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Preceding Commonwealth Services Delivery Agency Jurisdiction Commonwealth of Australia Minister responsible Alan Tudge, Minister for Human Services Parent department Department of Human Services CEO Grant Tidswell (26 Aug 2012–) Parent organization Australian Department of Human Services Profiles | ||
The Centrelink Master Program, or more commonly Centrelink, is a master program of the Australian Government that is managed under the authority of the Department of Human Services. Centrelink delivers a range of government payments and services for retirees, the unemployed, families, carers, parents, people with disabilities, Indigenous Australians, and people from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds, and provides services at times of major change. The majority of Centrelink's services are the disbursement of social security payments.
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History and operations
Centrelink commenced initially as a government agency of the Department of Social Security under the trading name of the Commonwealth Services Delivery Agency in early 1997. Following the passage of the Commonwealth Services Delivery Agency Act 1997, the Centrelink brand name came into effect in late 1997. Offices were established nationally to manage services to people in need of social security payments.
On 1 July 2011, Centrelink, together with Medicare Australia, was integrated into the Department of Human Services as a result of the Human Services Act, 2011 (Cth), with the department retaining the brand name as part of its set of master programs.
Debt recovery controversy
In 2016 Centrelink began reconciling welfare recipient's records against data from the Australian Taxation Office. In a process that had previously seen 20,000 debt recovery letters issued per year, this new automated data-matching technique, with less human oversight, saw that number increase to 169,000 letters during July-Dec 2016. Opponents of the automated process say that errors in the system have led to welfare recipients paying nonexistent debts or debts that are larger than what they actually owe. Some welfare recipients have been required to make payments while contesting their debts.
In some cases, the debts being pursued dated back further than the Australian Taxation Office requests that Australians retain their documentation. The onus was moved from Centrelink needing to verify the information, to being on the individual to prove they did not owe the funds, with human interaction being very limited in the dispatch of the debt letters.
The process however was touted to save the government $300m, and as such has now been considered for recovery action against the Aged Pension and Disability Pension, which may recover $1b.