Centrepay is once again in the news, and not for good reasons.
This week the Guardian uncovered new examples of the government system being used as a vehicle of financial abuse – Centrepay was diverting money away from people receiving Centrelink payments to energy giants, years after they stopped being power customers.
To be clear, we’re talking about a government-run budgeting tool taking money from people in survival mode in a cost-of-living crisis and giving it to big business for services not received. Sometimes thousands of dollars taken from people trying to make ends meet in a social security system that pushes them below the poverty line. As a financial counsellor remarked recently, you won’t find a better budgeter than a…
