Welfare Law in Australia

Welfare Law in Australia

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How Centrelink made an Australian with a disability destitute
As time went on, I learned more about how DHS deals with vulnerable people as a group… The more I learned, the more my focus expanded to encompass the…
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Darren O'Donovan
4
Uncovering the Grim Realities: Excavating Unlawful Income Apportionment
Recently we learnt that income apportionment — an unlawful way of calculating welfare overpayments — goes back to the 1990s. But yesterday we learnt…
 • 
Darren O'Donovan
 and 
Christopher Rudge
A Generational Miscalculation
Unpicking Centrelink’s Unlawful Income Apportionment
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Darren O'Donovan
5
A Path out of the Morass?
Reacting to FTXB; Department of Social Services
 • 
Darren O'Donovan
 and 
Christopher Rudge
5
Backlogged in bureaucracy
How do a million Centrelink claims go unprocessed?
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Darren O'Donovan
Lessons in Lawfulness
An analysis of the Commonwealth Ombudsman report finding more than 100,000 Centrelink files are affected by 'income apportionment' -- an unlawful method…
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Christopher Rudge
2
Centrelink's Net to Gross Earnings Calculator
What is this tool and why does the DSS use it to calculate debts? Is it legitimate or potentially unlawful?
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Christopher Rudge
Barriers to Implementing the Robodebt Royal Commission: The Audit Office Report on Welfare Timeliness and Accuracy
The Australian National Audit Office report into payment accuracy and timeliness in the welfare system was released last week. It sharply criticises the…
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Darren O'Donovan
Making things right? Ombudsman's statement highlights welfare department's recalcitrance
A new Ombudsman's statement reveals how Services Australia exempted itself from notifying some 15,000 welfare recipients (out of of a total of 47,000…
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Christopher Rudge
1
When is an unlawful debt calculation method akin to playing soccer with boots on your hands?
Sometimes, making sense of unlawful governmental action can give rise to imperfect and whimsical analogies.
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Christopher Rudge
12
Defining robodebts
How, and in what legal contexts, have robodebts been defined?
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Christopher Rudge
The Robodebt Royal Commission
The Commission's report is compelling and suitably opprobrious; but evidentiary omissions (no fault of the Commission) leave researchers and activists…
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Christopher Rudge
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