Associated Incidents
The Turnbull government has admitted it issued robo-debt recovery notices to 20,000 welfare recipients who were later found to owe less or even nothing.
Documents presented to Parliament by Human Services Minister Alan Tudge showed the use of automated data matching processes by Centrelink and the Department of Human Services resulted in 19,980 debt notices being issued, all of which were either reduced or rescinded.
20,000 wrong debts: Human Services Minister Alan Tudge. Credit:Andrew Meares
Data to March 31 showed a total of 12,524 people had their robo-debt demands reduced to a smaller amount, while a further 7456 people were found to have no legitimate debt.
In a response to questions from Labor backbencher Steve Georganas, Mr Tudge said NSW had the most debts reduced to zero, with 2234, while another 3644 debts in the state were reduced.