The Centrelink officer on the end of the phone to Eve* was telling her she was dead. Eve, 74, who receives a carer payment, had called after she noticed an extra $3,000 from Centrelink in her 81-year-old husband’s account in May this year, and she was concerned they had been overpaid.
After calling multiple times, she reached someone from Services Australia who looked up her account history.
“As far as we are concerned you are deceased,” the officer said.
The $3,000 was a bereavement payment made to her husband. It was then followed by a letter to him apologising for his loss, and letting him know she had been overpaid by a small amount, that would need to be returned, and that Centrelink would be contacting her bank.
Within a few weeks, all her records were wiped, her bank accounts were shut down, her energy concessions for the Gold Coast council were withdrawn and she could not even book an Uber.
Eve went to Births and Marriages, who confirmed what she knew – she was alive.
Nali Wardill, a lawyer from Basic Rights Queensland (BRQ) who worked on her case, has been given authority from Eve to speak about the issue.
“She’s the carer for her husband, who has dementia and is nonverbal,” Wardill said.
“She tried to get on to her Centrelink account and she couldn’t get through. She could see on her husband’s account, his myGov, she could log on there, but she couldn’t log on to hers.
“There’s no correspondence in her husband’s myGov account inbox either. So she thought this was an IT glitch.”
After hours on the phone, she said Centrelink told her it would fix the issue, escalate it up the chain and restore her records.
“She hadn’t received her usual carer pension,” Wardill said. “Because Centrelink thought she’s now dead. So it’s had a financial impact on them.”
After BRQ contacted Centrelink, it made a manual payment to Eve and she was then transferred to the debt recovery team to organise repayment for the $3,000 bereavement fund.
But in June, Eve’s bank accounts were frozen again and all the leftover funds had been transferred into an estate management account.
“After reassuring me that everything was amended and payment reinstated imagine my distress when the bank closed my accounts on Friday,” Eve wrote to BRQ. “[I] had to go into a branch to try and sort out to be told once again that I am deceased and everything has been moved to estate management and will need to go through the process of proving who I am.
“I have had to try and work around no access to funds. Family couldn’t transfer money as they had nowhere to send it, and direct debits due won’t go,” she said.
Eve and her husband had to ask the local chemist if they could pay later, and if they tried to book an Uber it was instantly cancelled.
“I don’t know how much more I can handle,” she wrote. “Being told that I have died again and not knowing if it is ever going to stop happening is taking its toll.”
Wardill said the automated letters sent by Centrelink to Eve’s bank and the council on 9 May 2023 had not been corrected until BRQ raised a complaint with them in June.
“She told me she was very distressed,” Wardill said “She hadn’t slept and it was exacerbating her anxiety, which is very typical of our vulnerable clients.
“It’s particularly difficult when you’re not able to advocate on your behalf or even if you are able to advocate on your behalf, you’re not able to get through to Centrelink, because everything is now based on your customer reference number.”
After Eve went to the bank again to tell them she was not deceased, they moved to reinstate her bank accounts. And after Centrelink sent a statement of regret over the situation, she took that to the council to get her concession put back on.
Kate Allingham, the chief executive of Economic Justice Australia, said the automation of letters to Eve’s bank and council had caused distress.
“In this nightmarish case, the consequences of automation were devastating and profound,” Allingham said.
“This woman’s payments were stopped, her bank account frozen and funds withdrawn. She could not access her money to buy food or medicine. It took months and the intervention of a lawyer for Centrelink to resolve.
“Robodebt is gone, but the ongoing and unchecked use of automation in government services continues to hurt people.
“Robodebt demonstrated that Centrelink’s decisions and actions can ruin people’s lives. As the agency moves to introduce safeguards, it’s imperative that people and the complexity of their lives are not lost in a digital one-size-fits-all automated system.”
Economic Justice Australia is now researching automation at Centrelink and will make recommendations to the government about how it can be used safely, transparently and responsibly, Allingham said.
“There should always be human oversight of automation at Centrelink,” she said.
A spokesperson for Services Australia said it could not comment on this specific case as Eve wanted to remain anonymous.
“We don’t have the details of this case to investigate the specific circumstances, but recording a customer’s death is undertaken with a number of service officer checks in place,” they said.
“We sincerely apologise for the distress and inconvenience caused by this error. We work hard to support people sensitively when they are experiencing bereavement, so we are especially disappointed this mistake placed unnecessary burden on this couple.
“If a human error occurs we have processes in place to take steps to prevent them from happening again. This includes feedback and training for individuals.”
* This name has been changed
• If you are feeling overwhelmed or need financial help, call the national debt helpline on 1800 007 007
