‘To this day, I still get anxiety when I think about my robodebt. The government should care about people who are struggling; people who have depression or money troubles. They should not put pressure on them and make their lives worse.’ – Angelica (not their real name)
Angelica was one of thousands of Australians who were told they had a robodebt.
From 2016 to 2019, the Robodebt scheme raised more than half a million inaccurate Centrelink debts through a method of ‘income averaging’, which has since been ruled unlawful.
Debts were imposed on people like Angelica which they then had to prove they didn’t owe.
Hunting down old payslips and bank statements was time-consuming and stressful, and clients told us of feeling…