An alarming new report published late in 2025 has shown that more than 300,000 Australians have had their Centrelink payments illegally terminated as a result of a critical failure in the automated compliance system used by government. According to the findings, released by the peak legal advocacy body Economic Justice Australia (EJA), approximately 20202024, there will be a gigantic “glitch” in the mutual obligations machinery which deprives vulnerable welfare recipients of their income without the due legal notice. This has attracted a lot of anger, being compared to the Robodebt scandal and an immediate investigation by the federal government and compensation is being sought.
The “28-Day” Legal Breach
The main issue with the illegality is that the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations (DEWR) and Services Australia handled the penalty of mutual obligation. According to the law of the social security, where a recipient fails to attend a mandatory appointment or activity, he or she is required to have a certain period of time known as normal time which is usually 28 days to reconnect with his or her employer and have the payment fully withheld. The EJA study established that there were about 310,000 cases where the automated system issued cancellations before this legal 28 days period elapsed. This had the effect of avoiding the safety net aimed at cushing individuals against instant poverty as a result of administrative mistakes or communication confusion.
Who Was Affected?
The cancellations were not aimed at a particular group of people but affected a wide range of welfare users. The most impacted groups are those receiving JobSeeker, Youth allowance, parenting payment as well as the disability support pension. To a lot of people, the cancellation was a shock, usually following a payment suspension (a temporary hold) being automatically changed to a permanent cancellation without human intervention. The victims claimed that they lost their main source of income overnight, which caused their housing, food insecurity, and extreme mental health conditions.
Government Response and Cancellations Halted
The federal government has accepted that there are major problems in the Targeted Compliance Framework (TCF) in response to accruing evidence and questioning by the Commonwealth Ombudsman. Authorities have verified that some automated decision making systems have been put on hold to avoid additional illegal terminations in the process of reviewing the system. The Department has claimed to be working through the figures yet advocacy groups note that the government has been tardy in acknowledging the extent of the error that is much greater than the original estimates which saw only a few thousand affected claims.
The Fight for Compensation
Since the invalidity of such cancellations is now on the spotlight, the emphasis has changed to the issue of remediation. Law makers believe that any individual who is terminated without reason deserves compensation of the time that they were undercompensated. This is not without precedent: single cases heard at the Administrative Review Tribunal have already translated into big payouts with some of the payees being paid tens of thousands of dollars in refunded money. But unless there is blanket compensation scheme, thousands of unsuspecting victims will never recover the money they are due unless they push the decision to the limit.
What to Do in Case You Were Affected
You might be in this group in case you received a Centrelink payment disbursed between 2020 and 2024 due to the cancellation of an appointment or lack of re-engagement. The welfare rights activists are encouraging possible victims to demand their file history of Centrelink and consult a law firm. Although the government is yet to declare an automatic refunding procedure of the entire 300,000 individuals, the clamor is intense to have a proactive remedy to the situation akin to the Robodebt settlement of the lawsuit.
Centrelink Cancellation Scandal Data
| Key Metric | Details |
| Total Affected | ~310,000 recipients |
| Time Period | 2020 – 2024 |
| Payments Impacted | JobSeeker, Youth Allowance, Parenting Payment |
| The Legal Error | Cancelled before 28-day reconnection window |
| System At Fault | Targeted Compliance Framework (TCF) |
| Status | Under Review / Cancellations Paused |
Frequently Asked Questions
1. I do not understand how to find out whether my payment has been canceled illegally?
You have been seriously impacted in case your payment was canceled due to the fact that you have not reconnected with a provider and it occurs less than 28 days after the first suspension. The correspondence history in myGov should be checked.
2. Am I going to receive back the pay, as of course?
At present, the number of 300,000 victims has not been offered an automatic refund scheme. To recover your money, you might have to either appeal a decision or ask the decision to be reviewed formally.
3. Is this the same as Robodebt?
It resembles it in that it entails automatic government system whereby decisions are made illegally that are detrimental to welfare recipients. But this scandal is not about false debts (owing money) as Robodebt was.
Disclaimer
The information is informational in nature. You may verify the official sources; we are trying to make sure that all users obtain the correct information.
