How robo-debt hit young people hardest

Exclusive data, seen by The Oz, shows one in five victims were under the age of 24.

Exclusive data, seen by the Oz, shows one in five victims were under the age of 24.

EXCLUSIVE

Young Australians were disproportionately affected by the previous government’s illegal robo-debt scheme, new figures show, with those aged between 25 and 30 the largest cohort affected at an average overpayment cost of $3,666.73.

Exclusive data, seen by the Oz, reveals the age break down of the nearly half million victims with 115,382  of them aged between 25 and 30 when they received their first debt collection notice.

Another 79,000 were under the age of 24.

The Oz understands Services Australia didn't put any additional safeguards in to protect young Australians when raising debts through the scheme and effectively treated them the same way as other victims. 

Safeguards known as "vulnerability indicators" are usually used by the agency to detect whether someone might be going through any hardship and can influence whether they have a trained staff member call them to discuss an issue rather than just being sent a debt letter. 

It comes as Anthony Albanese called a royal commission into the "human tragedy" that was the robo-debt scheme on Thursday to examine who was responsible, why it was necessary and how the scheme affected individuals

The Prime Minister said the commission, which will be based in Brisbane and presided over by former chief justice of the Queensland supreme court Catherine Holmes, will also recommend measures to prevent similar schemes from happening again.

The inquiry will cost $30m. 

Announcing the terms of reference for the Royal Commission into Robodebt today with @billshortenmp @amandarishworth and @markdreyfusqcmp. pic.twitter.com/HBoytCfWZs

— Anthony Albanese (@AlboMP) August 25, 2022

What was the robo-debt scheme?

• Between 2015 and 2019, the former government used an automated system to match tax and Centrelink data to raise debts against 443,000 welfare recipients for money it claimed was overpaid.
• Over the course of the scheme's life $751 million was wrongly collected from 381,000 people.
• The scheme has cost taxpayers more than $1.8 billion in compensation after the government agreed to a settlement with victims following a class-action lawsuit.

The human cost

• There have been at least three suicides that friends and family members have linked to debt recovery during the robo-debt scheme's operation.

Back to the numbers

• The data shows roughly 25,000 more women were affected than men through the scheme.
• The second biggest group affected were 31 to 35-year-olds (57,493) compared with the next largest cohort of around 45,000 who were aged 36 to 40-year-olds.

Today we announced a Royal Commission into Robodebt. Against Liberal denials, I’ve been saying Robodebt was illegal for years. This inquiry will answer remaining questions and deliver Robojustice for the victims. #robojustice pic.twitter.com/roWkdHcVtM

— Bill Shorten (@billshortenmp) August 25, 2022

Government Services Minister Bill Shorten, who fiercely fought to bring the previous government to account over the scheme, said the probe would provide “robojustice” for victims.

“The government has never satisfactorily explained how this monster scheme got away from the system and just had a life of its own,” he said.

Scott Morrison, who is already facing an inquiry into his secret ministry appointments, could be called to appear to explain his role in robo-debt's creation when he was social services minister back in 2015.

But Opposition leader Peter Dutton has already dismissed the royal commission as a "witch hunt", declaring the new Albanese government is merely obsessed with attacking the former prime minister.

But his colleague opposition home affairs spokeswoman, Karen Andrews, was more measured.

She told the ABC she thought Labor was "running a very fine line between setting itself up to be the government of inquiring into matters of the past, rather than inquiring into the ways that we should move forward as a nation." 

The Australian Council of Social Services welcomed the royal commission, saying it was time for those responsible to be held to account.

The body's acting chief executive Edwina MacDonald said:

“This royal commission must eliminate any possibility of robo-debt happening again and focus on improving protections for people receiving social security.”

Greens Senator Janet Rice said the royal commission shouldn't just look at the mistakes of the former government. 

"The robo-debt royal commission is important and necessary, but it can't only be a retrospective on the former government. It must also be forward-looking," she tweeted. "We need it to inform how we fix our broken social security system that is still causing so much harm harm to so many."