[LINK] Centrelink computers to keep tabs on the dead and flying

[Adam Todd]

At 08:25 AM 9/05/2007, Bernard Robertson-Dunn wrote:
>http://www.smh.com.au/news/budget2007/centrelink-computers-to-keep-tabs-on-the-dead-and-flying/2007/05/08/1178390314987.html
>
>WELFARE FRAUD
>A system to link death notices to the Centrelink computers will 
>become part of the Federal Government's weaponry against welfare fraud.

OK this is a good thing.

>The measure is designed to ensure that payments to an expected 
>12,000 families of deceased Centrelink customers are stopped as soon 
>as possible to prevent grieving relatives from accumulating social 
>security debts.

It's pretty aweful to get a call from Centrelink telling you to PAY 
UP or go to Jail after your partner dies.  But ...

>It is part of a $113.8 million strategy to combat welfare fraud 
>announced in the budget and designed to save almost $270 million 
>over three years.

How is the grieving relative who is accumulating social security debt 
because Centrelink can't "kill" a person off, fraud?

There are people who have spent up to 4 years trying to get 
Centrelink to stop sending payments for a dead partner.

Just GETTING the payment is hurtful when you have sent the notices 
and forms in to Centrelink and they CONTINUE to pay.

There is one woman in Victoria who has been taken to CRIMINAL court 
after 5 years of trying to get Centrelink to stop sending her husband 
payments.  She even changed banks, but when she gave Centrelink her 
new personal bank account, only in her name and with no reference to 
her husband, some nice person in Centrelink quickly updated her dead 
husbands record so the payments would be delivered in time.


>The system of automatically transferring death notice information to 
>Centrelink has been tried successfully in a pilot program, the 
>Minister for Human Services, Chris Ellison, said.
>
>Measures will also be introduced to combat welfare fraud among 
>Centrelink customers who leave the country for extended periods.

I understand that Emigration already sends outgoing data to 
Centrelink daily. I know that when I went to Cannes last year, my 
pension was immediately stopped on the day I left.  Although what was 
interesting is I went in and told Centrelink I was going and gave 
them the date of departure as the DAY BEFORE my real departure and my 
return as the DAY AFTER my return.

Centrelink actually obtained the exact time I left and returned.  Interesting.

>A "real-time" link between Centrelink and the Department of 
>Immigration and Citizenship will be established to keep a check on 
>changes in residence status and in departures from and returns to 
>Australia to ensure people are still eligible for payments.

This is a great thing.  Why one has to notify 50 people within one 
"organisation" that you are doing something is beyond my 
understanding.  I'd just love to have my passport read going out and 
coming back and have that data sent to Centrelink 
automagically.  Save me wasting time in queues.

It's probably one of the few "government data collection" things I'd 
not be unhappy or have an issue with.  It's hardly "private" as my 
departure is know to the airline, the Department of Immigration and 
my destination.

>"Approximately 700,000 Centrelink customers travel overseas each 
>year, and of these, 500,000 do not notify the agency of their 
>departure," Senator Ellison said.

Good to know I;m one of the 200,000, although my trip was sponsored :)

> From July 2008, the residence and visa status of new welfare 
> claimants will be checked before government payments are granted 
> and records will be automatically updated when welfare recipients travel.

Can't they just start doing it now :)  Really :)

I do agree though, that a Centrelink recipient probably has little 
reason, yet alone, ability to afford, travel over seas.  $180 a week 
doesn't leave much to survive on today.  How one affords airline 
tickets and all the rest is beyond me and most people smoke and drink 
- which my wife and I don't.

>In another fraud detection measure, Centrelink customers will also 
>be encouraged to provide proof of their earnings once they receive them.
>This measure is intended to prevent a projected 74,000 people from 
>under-declaring income and incurring a social security debt.

Isn't that just plain Fraud?

Mind you, I was told to declare $40 given to me to cover petrol I 
used to travel to an unpaid activity in the mountains.  I declared it 
and boy, it wasn't worth the effort.  Several forms later and 
explaining to a dozen people in Centrelink that I spent $65 in petrol 
going to and from the activity and only received $40 to cover that 
cost, which was really put into my tank at the B end of the journey 
anyway, isn't exactly "income"

Now that it matters, it's under the threshold anyway.

You try and do the right thing and all too often it becomes more a 
problem than just skipping the process for under levels of activity.

(I'm on a very confused Pension/Newstart thing that means I have no 
job reporting, I don't have to look for work specifically, but can if 
I choose, I don't have to take on work if I don't want to or can't 
[legal proceedings brought by my parents for example prevent me being 
able to commit to a full time job] yet I have to declare income if I 
get any, but I can have $1000 income without loosing any payments, 
and the list goes on.  There is NOTHING simple in being in this 
mixture and I feel sorry for many people on Disbaility pensions.)

>As well, from March 2008, whenever a jobseeker on welfare is placed 
>into a job by the Job Network or Disability Employment Network, the 
>information will be automatically included in Centrelink's system.

Now this is an interesting thing.  Having had a Job Network member 
who did next to nothing proactive, and having watched how some of 
them work, I'd have thought that this would happen as most would.  However:

JNM get paid for each attendance a job seeker makes, and completing 
activities the JNM sets for the job seeker.  So a few weeks or even 
an overlooking of a person going into a job, or a person taking on a 
casual job seems to be something many JNM's over look and don't 
report.  IN fact they seem to keep reporting attendance of the job 
seeker simply to get their payment and probably hope the Jobseeker 
isn't honest enough to report their non JNM activities to Centrelink.

I have a very interesting story about someone I helped in this very 
situation who declared to Centrelink they had taken on a full time 
job, yet Centrelink continued to pay them because the Job Network 
Member kept reporting weekly attendance to Job Seeking activities.

How frustrating would that be to someone restarting their 
life!  Being hammered by Government bureaucracy whilst trying to 
actually commit to an employer.