The federal government will stop employing troublesome outside debt collectors to pursue unpaid debts to social welfare agencies.
Government Services Minister Bill Shorten said this morning that contracts with debt collection firms formerly utilised by Services Australia will not be extended after they expire at the end of June.
According to Shorten, Services Australia would handle all future debt recovery on an internal basis.
The employment of hired debt collectors by the government came under scrutiny during last year’s royal investigation into robodebt.
Between July 2015 and November 2019, a disastrous robodebt scam run by the federal government raised $1.73 billion in erroneous debts against more than 400,000 people.
Robodebt victims described how debt collectors’ pursuit of them brought them dangerously close to considering suicide.
Speaking in 2020, Jennifer Miller of the Sunshine Coast claimed that Rhys Cauzzo committed suicide on Australia Day in 2017 after receiving two bills from Centrelink.
Following months of harassment by debt collectors, he committed suicide.
The Albanese Government, according to Shorten, would make sure that robodebt never happened again.
“The unrestrained savagery with which debt collection firms were unleashed against vulnerable Australians has been fully exposed by the Royal Commission investigating robodebt. We cannot allow this to occur once more, he said.
We are aware that opportunistic activity will occur anywhere there is government funding, but Services Australia is currently well capable of recovering debts and has numerous options available.
