Royal Commission into Robodebt

[christyk]

I worked in the then Department of Social Security for over 10 years and at one point it was my job to raise overpayments in a regional office (as it was done then). I was given formal training to do so, and it was all focussed on the fact that The Social Security Act decreed that each customer’s payment fortnight was the pivot around which all calculations were made, ie income averaging was unlawful. When I read today about all the buck passing associated with Robodebt I know they’re all lying through their teeth as it wouldn’t have taken any level of legal advice to know that it was completely outside the law. Even a base-grade clerk would have known.