Victorian Ombudsman finds major flaws in rollout of vital Business Support Fund during pandemic
Typos and unclear emails saw thousands of small businesses snubbed in their desperate pleas for help during the pandemic.
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Thousands of small businesses struggling through the pandemic were refused government support because of typos and unclear emails, with a Victorian Ombudsman probe forcing the state to reopen about 12,000 grants applications
A damning report by Ombudsman Deborah Glass has found the Andrews Government’s highly-touted Business Support Fund was riddled with errors when first set up and unfairly turned away people seeking a lifeline during the first coronavirus lockdowns across the state.
Among the biggest issues were grants being refused because of typing errors, IT issues and thousands of applications which were put on “draft” and never completed because of poorly worded emails.
The Department of Jobs, Precincts and Region was also not prepared for the task, with a call centre of just five people overwhelmed with thousands of calls per day.
The state government may have pay up to $120 million in additional funding after it vowed to fix the complaints raised and reopen $10,000 for 12,000 businesses with unfinished draft applications.
Ms Glass said the scheme was a valuable lifeline but in her report was highly critical of how it was rolled out and managed.
“The COVID-19 lockdowns fell like a hammer blow on small businesses,” she said.
“There was desperation in people’s voices, they were counting on a grant to pay bills, rent, wages – to survive.
“Despite the stress and anxiety caused by COVID-19, in an environment where their businesses were being destroyed, people were being penalised for their honest mistakes.
“Common sense decision making in approving the grant lacked when it was needed most.”
The Ombudsman’s office was inundated with more than 1100 complaints about the program
A lengthy probe found people within the department had not considered the severe stress struggling business owners would be under and that they may not have strong computer or language skills.
Despite this, staff tasked with approving grants at the start were not flexible about small issues such as mistyped emails and did not appear to have a proper system in place to handle complaints.
The most common problem identified was that applications that needed more information would be turned into drafts and businesses owners would be sent an email asking for changes.
But this email was not clear about how to resubmit for the $10,000 in support and the scheme ended with thousands of applications incomplete.
Ms Glass said the department had been unreasonable at times and refused to reassess some applications despite her office flagging how harsh their decisions had been.
“Good intentions got lost in translation,” she said.
“The aim of the fund was laudable, to support a hugely vulnerable cohort affected by lockdown. But administering it inflexibly undermined its very purpose.
“The people were forgotten in the process.
“Sometimes, it takes the nudge of the Ombudsman’s elbow to encourage public servants to do the right thing. In the end, that they do the right thing is what matters.”
A call centre set up for the scheme initially had just five people on the day it went live but was then outsourced a large centre with just 15 people.
Later on this grew to more than 500 people but they were not given access to the case management system from within the department.
A public servant also told investigators that it appeared on several occasions
“it sounded like the call centre had given people the wrong information”.
Despite its flaws, more than 79,500 applications were approved during the life of the scheme and almost $795 million paid out.
The problems investigated related to the first version of the Business Support Fund that ran from March to June 2020.
Later versions of the scheme attracted a smaller number of complaints which are still being resolved.
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Leanne Collins learned about the Business Support Fund from one of the clients at her salon. But when she put in Leanne’s Hair Design for the scheme her application got lost in the bureaucracy.
“I got an email stating they couldn’t read the attachments properly,” she said. “Because I had a reference number I’d hoped I was already in but the June deadline passed and no joy. When I called to complain they said it was all over red rover because they couldn’t access the system. It is a shame I couldn’t get it in August when I needed it during isolation. They built my hope up and snatched it away from me.”
Andrew Freeman’s printing business was also hit hard by the pandemic but a typo meant he spent nearly 12 months fighting for a grant. “There was a mistake in the email and because it bounced they wouldn’t take it any further,” he said. “When we phoned they would say we were in the queue and we couldn’t solve the problem until we went to the Ombudsman.
“After all that we saw there were two phone numbers and an alternative email that they could have used to track us down but never did.”
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