The Acting Commonwealth Ombudsman, Mr Oliver Winder, today released a report by the Ombudsman concerning the administration of social security breach penalties.

The focus of the report is the extent to which administrative practices satisfy the requirements of social security law and reasonable standards of procedural fairness.

Mr Winder noted that the penalties, in the form of reductions in assistance provided to unemployed people, have a significant impact on the individuals involved and can lead to significant hardship and disruption.

‘It is therefore very important that decisions to impose such penalties are made after an adequate investigation of the circumstances to establish if a breach of requirements has occurred and that the administration of these provisions has proper regard to procedural fairness’ he said.

‘During the period of our investigation (which coincided with the release of an independent report and an internal Centrelink review of these issues) the Government announced and implemented some changes to breach penalty arrangements. Those changes should help to overcome some of the problems we identified. Centrelink also responded to issues raised during our investigation by implementing changes to some administrative practices and amending their training material and procedural guidelines.’

‘The Department of Family and Community Services has also undertaken to revise its policy guidance to address some of the key issues raised in the report.’

Mr Winder welcomed the positive response of Centrelink and the relevant policy departments to the report.

‘This reflects well on the commitment of those agencies to improving the standard of administration in this area’, Mr. Winder said.

The report makes 29 recommendations aimed at improving the administration of social security penalty provisions. Centrelink and the relevant departments have already indicated their agreement to 19 of those recommendations and have given a commitment to further consider another eight.

Mr Winder noted that the Ombudsman has asked that urgent attention be given to recommendations aimed at improving the new processes for contacting unemployed people about possible breaches, establishing mechanisms to measure and monitor the quality of breach decision making and to provide redress for those affected by deficiencies in the administration of penalties relating to incorrect declaration of earnings.

‘The Ombudsman has also indicated that he intends to closely monitor progress on the implementation of the recommendations contained in the report and report progress to the Parliament in his next annual report’, Mr Winder said.

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Date of release: 4 October 2002