Imagine that every three months, one in three workers in Australia had their pay suspended. Outrageous, right? All the media and the unions would be on it, the parliament would be abuzz, the Fair Work Commission would grind to a halt because there would be so many legal challenges.
But where is the fuss when every three months, one in three working age Australians who are dependent on the government for an income (JobSeeker, Parenting Payment etc), have their pay suspended?
There generally isn’t any fuss at all, but things changed in December 2024 when it was revealed that around 1,000 income support payments may have been illegally cancelled in the period between April 2022 and July 2024. And since then, another 1,000+ people have had wrongful financial penalties applied to them in a separate IT issue uncovered in January 2024.
The Australian Council of Social Services lodged a complaint with the Commonwealth Ombudsman in December. And last week, 4 February, the Ombudsman announced it would investigate the Targeted Compliance Framework.
The Targeted Compliance Framework (TCF) is a Services Australia tool which administers penalties to people on government incomes if the person doesn’t meet their mutual obligations. For years, we have seen payments to single mothers suspended when they did nothing wrong. One such case is a mum who spent the night in the hospital with a child desperately ill, and then had her pay suspended the next day.
The framework itself is unjust and the IT system and Job Provider networks that makes it operate are frequently at fault. CSMC, along with many others, has been consistently opposed to the TCF and how it operates, and has told governments about the harm it does. For example, if you have your rent on direct debit and your payment is suspended, the rent payment will not be made.
So it is terrific that the Ombudsman is going to investigate the framework. We will watch closely to see what they report, with Robodebt still fresh in all our minds. Hopefully, this time, the damage is nipped in the bud.
Council of Single Mothers and their Children congratulates ACOSS for staying the course and making the complaint.
