Our social security system is supposed to be there to keep people safe – to watch over people when they go through tough times. Robotic debt did the exact opposite.
This rudimentary and inhumane debt collection system relied on automated averages to calculate people’s incomes and billed hundreds of thousands of fake debts, based on faulty assumptions that people had received Social Security payments. too much.
Robodebt relied on the automated average to calculate people’s incomes.Credit:Kate Geraghty
Most robotic debt victims were already watching every penny when they were suddenly hit with debt demands, sometimes thousands and thousands of dollars. There was little recourse to dispute the debts, often because they related to events that had occurred years before. Anyone who has experienced the insecurity of casual, low-paying work will tell you how unpredictable their pay is from week to week. Robot debt has brutally ignored this reality and instead derailed lives by instantly accusing people of wrongdoing based on false information without adequate human checks or balances.
Like many others, we have long warned the federal government against this blatant abuse of power. After years of advocacy, particularly by those directly affected, the federal government was forced to settle a class action lawsuit with a $1.2 billion package in compensation and illegal debt repayments. The true cost, however, is insurmountable and has been borne by hundreds of thousands of low-income people in the form of irreversible damage to their lives.
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The same day the settlement was announced, the Productivity Commission released its report on mental health, finding a cost to the national economy of more than $200 billion a year. This is of course in addition to the inexplicable human cost. It’s crucial that this report urges the government to take positive action on mental health, but it’s also critical that the government realizes just how much damage its policies have done.
Robotic debt was just one of many government policies designed to demonize and punish people who find themselves trying to get by on Social Security because they don’t have paid work. People must meet strict ‘mutual obligation’ requirements or risk having their payments suspended for minor infractions, such as arriving a few minutes late for a meeting or not being able to access a government app.
In some towns, mostly indigenous communities, people have to use paternalistic cards to pay for purchases with limited access to cash. This raises a range of practical issues, for example for people sharing accommodation or trying to buy second-hand furniture.
Although we have seen social security payments increase this year so that people without paid work can finally cover basic needs, the increase was only temporary and has already been reduced, with another reduction announced for the period of Christmas. The combined result is that people without paid work are forced to live in deep uncertainty and fear. With record unemployment, it’s an experience now shared by millions of people across the country.
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