Disability organisations reiterate the call for the Government to stop all Centrelink payment penalties and end the Targeted Compliance framework following another alarming report from the Commonwealth Ombudsman about the harms within the mutual obligations system.

It reveals that the Department of Workplace Relations has not maintained effective oversight of powers to cancel or suspend Centrelink payments. It found that many people regularly receive misleading information from providers, that complaint processes are inaccessible, suspensions and cancellations are regularly found to be wrong when reviewed, and that the process to compensate people for earlier unlawful decisions have been unfair and unreasonable.

The ombudsman also says that the stigmatisation of welfare recipients may contribute to the lack of protections in place, and that greater supervision and oversight of the private providers administering this system is urgently needed.

From statistics for January to March of 2025, about 30% of people subject to these penalties disclosed a disability to Centrelink and in June to September over 600,000 payment suspensions were issued. The loss of a payment can cause immediate financial crisis, particularly for the many people who rely on income support as their only source of income and already facing other barriers in their lives.

You can read the full report here.

And you can read our earlier statement calling for the targeted compliance framework to end here.

Statement from the Anti-poverty Center here.