Australia has been urged to better protect the rights of welfare recipients after many had their income support payments illegally canceled.
In late November, data from a federal department examined the Targeted Compliance Framework and found that it may have mistakenly canceled social benefits, potentially affecting at least 1,000 people between April 2022 and July 2024.
Australian Council of Social Services CEO Cassandra Goldie has called on the federal government to suspend the mechanism used to enforce mutual obligations, which requires welfare recipients to complete mandatory tasks – such as finding a employment – in exchange for their payments.
“Payment suspensions and cancellations have extremely harmful impacts on people, including not only loss of income, but also the risk of homelessness, breakdown of relationships and destitution,” Goldie said on Tuesday.
“The compliance system cannot continue to operate against hundreds of thousands of people, often in very vulnerable circumstances, while the legality of decisions is questioned and basic protections are still not in place.
“If this is confirmed to be unlawful, it would mark the third instance of unlawful action in recent years against people who rely on income support for their basic needs.”
Despite a parliamentary committee previously warning that the compliance framework’s provisions could be “unnecessarily burdensome”, its use has continued.
In a letter to Employment Minister Murray Watt, Goldie urged the federal government to contact those affected, conduct a human rights review into the framework and stop suspending payments until the ministry can clarify legal issues.
An earlier statement from the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations did not say whether the cancellations were unlawful, but noted that they “may have been applied incorrectly”.
