Senate Education and Employment Legislation Committee [Part 2], , 1:19:46 to 1:26:31
The department provides details on the compensation scheme for job seekers and the financial allocations for system updates. Officials explain the process for identifying eligible recipients and the challenges of data sharing between agencies.
Topics: Government spending, Social services, Government IT systems
Speakers: Fiona Dewar, Senator Matt O'Sullivan, Simon Duggan, Lisa Schofield, Unknown Speaker, Senator Penny Allman-Payne
>> um, in terms of compensation, uh, the on the 19th of October, Secretary, you said that the department had started inviting people to claim compensation in batches over the coming months. >> Um, and you spoke about that. What's the how much is going to be repaid?
>> Uh, so Senator, we will need to go through of course once we receive any applications for compensation. So the way we've approached this is to focus in the first instance on cancellation decisions under 42 a.m. and as I said in my statement earlier we've proactively invited 50,652 people to apply for compensation. The way we identified those people was using our own systems and the services Australia systems to try and identify through data analytics those who were most likely to have suffered detriment through that period. So we're proactively going out. We've also made it clear though that um anyone any current or former participant in the system who feels that they may have suffered detriment >> can of course put in an application. We won't know precisely how much we will be compensating until we start to see the claims. And of course the making a claim in and of itself isn't isn't enough to prove that detriment has been caused. We will need to analyze those claims and make an assessment as to whether or not they are eligible for compensation. Is
it a what is it
>> under the CDDA?
>> Is it a contingent liability or what what how have you factored in the
>> So, Senator, there was there was money provided at the last year's myo >> um to uh fund the compensation um that we are currently in the process of administering at the moment. So, that was a measure.
>> How much was that?
>> The the measure um in my was $43.9 million over four years from 2526. um that funding that 43.9 million um included the funding for um some funding for compensation as well as funding to do the system works and other IT things that we've been talking about already this evening.
>> Okay. Of the 50,000 has any any been
>> So, so far um Senator, we've so we are in the process of inviting the 50,000 people. So far, we've sent 1,430 invitations. >> I don't know that we've received any.
Yeah, we have um now received 50 um applications for compensation, but they have not started to be >> considered.
the ombsman reported 651 people identified for back payments of whom 604 have been repaid. In August, the department said that uh 47 could not be paid for a range of reasons. Have you got that data there? What were the what were the reasons?
>> Thanks, Senator. So, of the um 47 people that the department could not um contact, 41 were unable to be contacted to verify their bank details. Services Australia attempted to call each customer on five separate occasions. services could Australia could not send a letter as there was no way of verifying that the customer still resided at the address held on record and so that poses a privacy risk. Uh five people had passed away and did not have an executive or next of kin recorded. Uh and one person had changed payment type after the penalty was applied and was already in receipt of income support payment for that period that that had been cancelled. So they were effectively not eligible for
and will the 651 not including maybe those 47 um or hang on sorry different number uh yeah so 651 are they going to be invited to claim compensation or will their back payment be counted against it against what they
>> So um those 651 um were part of the 42 AF2D review and compensation process which the department carried out last year. So that compensation process um we reviewed um the circumstances of 964 people affected by that provision. Um we um made those recommendations for the 651. Um and then we sought to contact the the residual that proc the process has finished but of course anyone can make a claim at any time under the um scheme for compensation for
>> those people that were uh that you couldn't contact were they not were they still in the system like were they still um being serviced by a service provider?
Um, Senator, I don't have that information, but I know that the mix of people was both those >> currently still in the system at the time that the review as well as those that had exited. So,
>> did Okay. Did you attempt in in trying to contact them, did you go to their previous service provider, the the one that was at active at the time of their suspension and ask them if they know like like to what what extent did you go down the different uh path to find uh
these people? So uh senator we are we can only use the um information we currently hold in the system and that's both the department's system and services Australia system. So we went through a process to um identify um the most appropriate contact details for the person or the most recent contact details.
>> So you can't but you can't call the service provider and say hey we've lost contact with this person.
>> Those details would be held on our system.
>> They're the same senator. the con the contact details that a service provider would have and the contact details that the department would have is the same record.
>> But is it the job of the service provider to update the contact details in your system? the system. >> Well, they may have they may have it in a their own um contact management
>> The systems
>> that will be separate to yours maybe.
are on our system and then you're through to services Australia and you're having an income support payment made to you >> that data should be held across systems.
>> Would you like to rotate the call?
>> I I thought you were finishing a block. So,
>> is that your arm? Is that
arm. >> Um, how do you finish that block? Cuz I
will if so and then I'll come back to