System that cancelled welfare payments taken offline

A government-run IT system responsible for the illegal cancellation of hundreds of welfare payments will be offline for several months.

The Targeted Compliance Framework operates Australia’s controversial reciprocal obligations regime for welfare recipients.

The Commonwealth Ombudsman found the system had been paused since 2025 after it unlawfully canceled payments for 964 jobseekers between April 2022 and July 2024.

Laws introduced in the wake of the Robodebt scandal require organizations to take into account each jobseeker’s situation before withholding payments, but this has not happened.

Many recipients subsequently had to go to great lengths to recover the funds, including producing detailed historical documents.

Simon Duggan, secretary of the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations, told a Senate committee a long period of time was needed to fix the system.

“This time frame reflects the greater complexity of returning these elements to legal management, including the need for more significant changes in IT systems, procedures and training of decision makers,” he said.

Meanwhile, welfare recipients still need to meet a complex list of obligations to continue receiving payments.

These include people who need to attend regular meetings and apply for posts on JobSeeker, or single parents who need to report their income accurately.

Employment Minister Amanda Rishworth addressed the National Press Club in May to announce sweeping changes to JobSeeker.

He said the unemployed are “running out” without proper assistance and that mutual obligation requirements take up too much time.

Ms Rishworth said the changes would be “effective, fair and proportionate”.

The announcement follows more than five years of criticism that the system forces people to work in unsuitable jobs or leave them without adequate benefits.

A 2023 parliamentary inquiry into the scheme found that it was focused on “leaving people off benefits”.