Budget 2017: welfare payments set to be streamlined

Centrelink payments are set to be streamlined in today’s budget.

A plan to streamline Centrelink payments will be unveiled in today’s budget as the government moves to drastically reduce the number and complexity of benefits — a key recommendation of the McClure review into the welfare system.

The move comes as research from the Parliamentary Library commissioned by Labor shows that just a handful of the almost 90 recommendations made by Patrick McClure in 2015 have been implemented by the Coalition.

Under the budget overhaul of the welfare system, the government will reduce the number of payments and supplements available while unveiling tough new compliance measures for those who deliberately shirk jobs and job-seeker obligations.

There are about 20 different income support payments and 55 supplementary payments, which Mr McClure’s report recommended be reduced to five.

At a landmark speech at the National Press Club late last year, Social Services Minister Christian Porter said the system was so complex it was like “assembling Ikea furniture in the dark” and flagged that the government would seek to introduce a streamlined system.

After the release of the McClure review, Treasurer Scott Morrison — then social services minister — said a major redesign of Australia’s welfare payment structure was needed to address “the costly, confusing and inequitable elements” of the current ­system.

Labor’s families spokeswoman Jenny Macklin criticised the government for failing to implement changes recommended more than two years ago. “The Turnbull government’s so-called welfare reform agenda is all spin and no substance,” Ms Macklin said.

“Rather than simplifying payments, as recommended by Patrick McClure, they are actually adding complexity to the system by axing the energy supplement to new recipients and creating different payment rates.”

Ms Macklin also criticised the government for maintaining “zombie measures” introduced in the 2014 budget, pointing to the crackdown on paid parental leave and making young job seekers wait five weeks to access income support.

The research from the Parliamentary Library obtained by The Australian finds that of the almost 90 recommendations made in the review, only five have been fully implemented, with another 15 partly implemented.

About 30 have not been adopted at all, including most of the first “pillar” of Mr McClure’s proposed reforms that advocated “a simpler and sustainable income support system”.

Last year the government announced $60 million for the Welfare Payment Infrastructure Transformation project that aims to deliver on Mr McClure’s recommendation to develop a new IT system to modernise the delivery of government services.

As part of the IT overhaul, the government has also pledged to introduce real-time income reporting from the Australian Taxation Office to the Department of Human Services with the aim of better integrating the tax and ­income support systems.

However, the move has become associated with the ­Coalition’s attempts to claw back $4 billion in overpayments through a contentious automated debt-recovery system that seeks to match historical data from the ATO with income reported by welfare recipients.

Yesterday, the Australian Federal Police announced it would not pursue a complaint by Labor that Human Services Minister Alan Tudge broke privacy law by releasing information about a Centrelink client who complained about the debt-recovery process.

“Labor’s referral was always a political stunt and part of its Centrelink scare campaign,” he said.