The federal government has sent more than 11,000 people Centrelink debt letters worth a total of $32m claiming they were overpaid due to jobkeeper, while resisting calls to claw back money from businesses who got the wage subsidy and then made a profit.
Services Australia has told Senate estimates 11,771 people have had a debt raised after the completion of a review of their income support payments and the jobkeeper income that was paid to them by their employer.
As at 30 April 2021, approximately $32.8m in debt has been raised through completed reviews, the agency said in response to questions from the Greens senator Rachel Siewert.
Debts that have been raised have only been issued to the welfare recipient, not yet recovered.
Siewert said t…
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