Federal government paid Infosys $191m for abandoned Centrelink calculator that only processed 784 claims

The contract with Infosys for an automated welfare payment calculator was awarded in 2019 by then-minister Stuart Robert and $191m was paid before the project was abandoned. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian

The federal government paid the contractor Infosys $191m for an automated welfare payment calculator that only processed 784 claims for one type of payment during a trial before it was abandoned as a failure.

The “entitlement calculation engine” was supposed to help Centrelink determine how much welfare recipients should be paid, based on their individual circumstances. It was one part of a much larger effort to overhaul Centrelink’s payment infrastructure.