The Commonwealth Ombudsman has released a report of its investigation into the cancellation of income support payments under the Targeted Compliance Framework.

Titled Automation in the Targeted Compliance Framework: When the Law Is Changed but the System Isn’t, the report considers whether the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations (DEWR) and Services Australia cancelled job seekers’ income support in a lawful manner by using automated processes and the safeguards they established to ensure future cancellation decisions are lawful, fair and reasonable.

The investigation found:

  • Agencies’ cancellation of income support under section 42AF(2) of the Social Security (Administration) Act 1999 was not lawful.
  • Agencies did not ensure their respective processes and computer systems were complying with the amended legislation.
  • DEWR had insufficient consultation processes during the legislative drafting process with relevant stakeholders including internally between policy and operational teams, and externally with Services Australia.
  • Agencies’ quality assurance activities did not identify the unlawful cancellations.
  • There was significant delay between identifying the unlawful cancellations and pausing all cancellations.
  • The DEWR Secretary has not complied with the statutory requirement to establish a Digital Protections Framework.

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