Ricardo Menéndez March: Green Party Social Development Spokesperson on the Ministry of Social Development's incorrect benefit processing

The Green Party's concerned beneficiaries will be slapped with massive debt due to the Ministry of Social Development's mistakes. 

MSD's revealed nearly 1-in-4 benefit entitlements aren't being processed correctly. 

It's cited complexity of cases, systems challenges and weakness within its internal capability, and says accuracy's been declining for three or four years.  

Greens Social Development spokesperson Ricardo Menéndez March told Ryan Bridge MSD hasn't confirmed it won't order thousands of dollars from those it's overpaid.  

He says that would push people further down the poverty line and into more hardship as they try to repay it. 

LISTEN ABOVE 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Nearly one in four beneficiaries are being paid incorrectly. This
according to an annual report from the Ministry for Social Development.
It found only seventy seven point six percent of clients
had their entitlement correctly assessed in twenty three twenty four.
That is worse than the previous year's result, which was
eighty two point seven percent. Riccardo me and INA's march
is the Green Party Social Development spokesperson needs with us
this morning, Riccardo more than a good morning. Well, this

(00:23):
is obviously not good and the worst part of this
is that if you're a beneficiary and you get overpaid,
then you have a debt that you have to pay back.

Speaker 2 (00:34):
Yeah, that's right. And so what often happens is that
you could be overpaid by say it could be you know,
you know, fifteen dollars each week, but that accumulates and
if at MSCY picks that up way letter than the line,
you could end up then slap with a you know,
thousands of dollars worth of debt from overpayments for something
that wasn't really your fault. EMMSDY couldn't even tell us

(00:55):
that they would guarantee that if it was their fault.
They would not then slap someone with a massive death
later than the line. That means that pushes people further
down the poverty line and in a hardship as they
have to repay it.

Speaker 1 (01:08):
The fault thing is crucial because it, as you say,
will determine who might be responsible. But isn't this just
a too hard basket thing because you've got somebody who's
working irregular hours, thereby changing what their entitlement to the
benefit might be. And every week you've got to basically
update MSD with how many hours you've worked, otherwise you'll
be overpaid.

Speaker 2 (01:30):
And part of the problem is particularly for people who
are in casual work or moving in and out of work,
is that we have an updated and haven't improved the
system that a lot of people, for example, move from
being on a benefit into part time work. And because
of the way that your benefit effectively obeys, yes, you

(01:50):
do have that moment in which it's really difficult for
a beneficiary to be adjusting those things. Equally, it's difficult
for the work and competitions as well.

Speaker 1 (01:58):
It's so the whole thing sounds so inefficient. You have
to pick up the phone and ring them and tell them,
what your ows are that week? What is your solution?

Speaker 2 (02:06):
So there's two things here. If you lifted benefits above
the poverty line and allow people to live with dignity
work and income, case managers actually wouldn't have to spend
so much time delivering things like hardship and emergency grants
that could be focusing on the basics like getting benefit
entitlements rights. But the other thing is then.

Speaker 1 (02:24):
You do also make work look less attractive.

Speaker 2 (02:26):
You know what I mean, Well, there's no actually, there's
no evidence of spaces for that. If anything, Actually, when
you have people living way below the poverty line, you
make it harder for them to find work. That's been
marrid and researched across many countries where they have similar
welfare systems. The other part is that we need to
make our abatement rates better. So this is how much
or you lose your benefit when you enter work. If

(02:48):
we make that a lot more stable, it means you
wouldn't have a super complicated welfare system that even case
managers that work and then come struggle to understand.

Speaker 1 (02:56):
Rakarda what about an app? I mean, why have these
bureaucraits got a simple app that you can log in
and you can punch and I've done twenty seven hours
this week. Last week I did twenty six. You know,
why can't we make this simple?

Speaker 2 (03:10):
Well, part of the issue is that successive governments have
tried to make the IT systems better, but that requires
an upfront investment, and right now we've got a government
that actually is refusing to put enough money to update
the IT systems from work and income that are frankly
decades and decades old. All right, well, what you're transported
to the eighties or well.

Speaker 1 (03:31):
I mean obviously the last government had the same approach,
otherwise we wouldn't still be living in the eighties. Ricardo,
thank you very much for being on the show. I
appreciate Riccarvman in India's March talking there about nearly one
in four beneficiaries being paid incorrectly.

Speaker 2 (03:43):
For more from early edition with Ryan Bridge. Listen live
to News Talks it'd be from five am weekdays, or
follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.