The Department of Human Services (DHS) is to contact a number of recipients of Child Care Subsidies who have been inadvertently issued with incorrect lump sum payments.
General Manager at DHS, Hank Jongen (pictured) apologised to the people affected, saying they numbered less than one per cent of Child Care Subsidy recipients.
“It’s regrettable a recent system upgrade impacted the family income assessment process,” Mr Jongen said.
“Some family records were assessed without recognising both partners’ incomes and the system thought they had been underpaid. This resulted in automatic top up payments to people’s bank accounts.”
He said DHS resolved the issue within two days.
“However, we are now carefully reviewing around 8,000 payments made during the two-day period,” he said.
“Many of these payments were valid so we need to separate those that shouldn’t have been made.
“We will be calling people affected to explain what has happened and offer repayment options.”
He said most of the overpayments were between $50 and $2,000 and the Department would be flexible in its approach, tailoring arrangements to take account of people’s financial situations.
“This doesn’t apply to the overwhelming majority of the 1.1 million people receiving Child Care Subsidy,” Mr Jongen said.
“If families have any concerns about payments they have received, they can call 136 150,” he said.
