Hundreds of thousands of Centrelink payments cancelled illegally, Albanese government admits

The government has admitted it illegally cancelled hundreds of thousands of Centrelink payments because of a glitch in the automated system that runs the controversial mutual obligations scheme, it has been revealed. Speaking at senate estimates on Wednesday, representatives for the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations said the number of illegal cancellations, where people were not given enough time to reconnect to a job provider after missing a compulsory activity as part of their mutual obligations, was in “the vicinity” of 300,000. Guardian Australia first reported analysis from the peak body for community legal centres, Economic Justice Australia, last year that showed 310,000 people had their Centrelink payments unlawfully cancelled between 2020 and 2024. At the time, the department refused to comment, only publicly admitting to unlawfully cancelling 9,510 payments. Payment cancellations have been paused since July 2024 because of this. Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email Asked if the department’s analysis on the total number, which has not been public, is similar to the EJA estimate, DEWR’s Bronwyn Field said “EJA used publicly available data” to find out how many payments may have been unlawfully cancelled. “It is in the vicinity of that,” Field said. “But there are a couple of things that we need to consider and why there’s complexity. …