IT outage chaos: “Mutual” obligations must be suspended to stop distress and confusion for welfare recipients
The Antipoverty Centre is calling on employment minister Murray Watt to immediately implement an ongoing “mutual” obligations pause following more than a week of disruption in the Workforce Australia IT system.
Included below: comments from Antipoverty Centre spokesperson Jay Coonan; background and quotes from people affected by the “mutual” obligations pause.
The Antipoverty Centre has always advocated for “mutual” obligations to be fully abolished due to the pointless nature of activities and the enormous harm caused to participants by unfair rules and abusive providers.
Since last Monday, IT issues have plagued government systems that welfare recipients must use to receive their Centrelink payment on time. The failure to provide certainty with an ongoing “mutual” obligations pause until issues are resolved is harming people in poverty. People have needlessly done pointless, harmful and costly activities when they didn’t have to because they have not been kept informed.
Those unable to report income through the Centrelink website are subject to payment delays that can have devastating flow-on consequences. People with “mutual” obligations requirements have been flooded with conflicting information and delayed messages, causing confusion and distress.
To prevent further harm to welfare recipients, the Antipoverty Centre is calling for an indefinite “mutual” obligations pause to be put into effect immediately and communicated to all people affected before the current pause ends tomorrow. There must be a minimum seven day buffer period before requirements are reinstated to provide adequate notice for people who need to plan their lives around these activities.
Quotes attributable to Antipoverty Centre spokesperson and JobSeeker recipient Jay Coonan
It is unacceptable to treat people this way and is causing harm through confusing and delayed messaging over the last week. Screwing people around like this sends the message that you don’t believe our time has any value. We’re not just sitting around, we have families, caring responsibilities, healthcare, and many other commitments that we’re trying to juggle while surviving without enough money to live.
Welfare recipients are always an after thought. These delayed notices and confusing communications show it.
The employment department needs to stop doing these day-by-day notifications and give people certainty. Take this seriously and address it urgently by announcing an indefinite pause to “mutual” obligations until these IT issues are resolved.
This needs to be clearly communicated to both participants and providers in an accessible and timely manner, and the indefinite pause must be announced BEFORE Friday afternoon so that people are notified before the weekend and are able to plan and prepare for next week.
So far we have no details about what these IT issues are. But the government does not need details to implement a “mutual” obligations pause – they can reassure people right now, regardless of what is happening with their systems.
All we know is that the way this has been handled again shows total disregard for the lives and humanity of welfare recipients – this has to stop, just put an indefinite pause on “mutual” obligations.
Ultimately, the government knows as well as we do that the only way to fully protect people in poverty from unnecessary harm is to abolish the cruel system of “mutual” obligations altogether.
Media contact: 0403 429 414 / media at antipovertycentre.org
Comments from people affected by the “mutual” obligations pause
nb: Links and contact information for comments below are available on request.
Social media users, including people with “mutual” obligations, employers and job agency employees have been raising concerns about the lack of communication for over a week.
“I've got all these texts about the days we won't be penalised for - except my day, the 11th. I submitted but got a text saying I didn't do my obligation. Can't get through on the phone. Grrr.”
“I do not trust them to pause mutual obligations and not penalise everyone when they don't do their requirements during the paused period.”
“Will they extend the date that you are required to meet your Mutual Obligations by to make up for days you couldn't get onto their site?”
“They only notified [us] providers about 30 minutes ago, and I'm being very liberal with my use of the word "notified". They published the notice on the provider portal. If we don't visit that page, we don't find out. They don't call us or email us.”
“i thought i was in the wrong, been trying to report my mums income for a week and they paused it because all last week the system was down and she went into an office today and got dismissed”
“people have decided to prioritse money to get to an appointment that won't count from their already over stretched pittance”
Saturday: “So apparently I have an appointment with Des on Monday I don't get paid until Tuesday so wont have the money to attend but apparently I wont get paid unless I engage with a face to face meeting.” … Monday: “I got [a text about the MOs pause] at 2pm after I'd gone to my appointment … the appointment was useless of course”
“Even though I attended my appointment today the JSP had no access to their system and couldn't update anything. So if they forget, I'll still be penalised and I'm sure others in the same situation will too… The system is set up to assume any issues are our fault. They never have any consequences”
“Ty for providing some sort of mental relief on the situation. Super stressed cause can't report my job applications and the points period ends today but the website is down. Even though workforce is down and they're pausing obligations, I won't be surprised it turns into a woops you didn't report your points this period and we're suspending your payment.”
“Looks like they've finally updated the Mutual Obligations Exemption site, but of course have only included today when today is almost over once again, instead of extending it for the rest of the week or at least tomorrow (when i have my appointment, lol) so people know ahead of time. No point in me going in tomorrow for them to just say oh, our systems are down, you can go home. K thanks. Why are they being so stingy about it when they're the ones causing the problem?”
“Hey guys,I've heard mutual obligations are currently on hold is this true?”
“Has anyone else been receiving notifications that mutual obligations are paused for, like, one day, or two days, but these messages arrive AFTER the stated pause period, which means it doesn’t help at all to have had them paused if I didn’t even know about it in time? 😤 I don’t want to have to attend appointments if I don’t have to. Cheers.”
Background
There are currently 969,000 people subjected to compulsory “mutual” obligations activities (635,375 in Workforce Australia; 246,592 in Disability Employment Services; 44,915 in Transition to Work; 41,717 in Community Development program).1
Welfare recipients have scrambled to find up-to-date information while the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations has drip fed the pausing of requirements, refusing to give certainty to around 900,000 people who have compulsory activities.
The system has not been fully operational since 6 January, when “mutual” obligations requirements were supposed to come into effect after the end of year pause. Since then, DEWR had been extending the pause by one day at a time, until Tuesday this week when they extended it to Friday 17 January following pressure from advocates.
As of this morning, a notice about unplanned outages is still showing.
Many people have reported receiving text messages about the current pause in requirements after the message was out of date.
