Stuart Robert (Fadden, Liberal Party, Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme) Share this | Hansard source

Remember, we will continue to use data-matching to line up a tax return with the welfare an individual Australians has received as the basis to ascertain whether a debt may exist. Letters then go out to Australians and, for the benefit of the House I will read one again, as I've done previously in the House, but those opposite, with their tin ears, have clearly forgotten. Letters Australians receive sound like this:

We need you to check and update your past income information.

We need to make sure you received the right amount of payments from us in the past.

The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has given us information about how much income you earned from work in the past.

Why did they receive that? Because in 2011 those opposite commenced the joining up of Centrelink and the ATO. The letter continues:

The information from the ATO is different to the information you reported to us.

We need your help to check and update your information …

You need to do this even if you haven't received any Centrelink payments for a while.

That is the key. We will engage with Australians.

Last week, the Commonwealth made a refinement to this process so that income compliance will not be used solely to crystallise a debt from the Commonwealth and further proof points will be used. We are now going back, to ensure fairness and consistency for all Australians, to look at any decisions that have been made in that limited group who did not engage with the department at all, to connect with them and seek further proof points. My message to Australians is that my department will work through this sensibly and practically, and will be in contact with Australians from this limited group who may have been impacted.

This process began in 2011 under the Labor Party. Refinements have been made continually since that date and further refinements were made last week as we continue to operate one of the most targeted welfare systems in the world.

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