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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
National
Paul Karp Chief political correspondent

Millions of Australians charged $4.3bn may be part of debt miscalculation controversy

Services Australia Australia DSS
Signage for a Centrelink and Medicare office
The 5.3m debts that are potentially affected represent 10% of the total of 53m social security and family payment debts recorded over a similar period. Photograph: Darren England/AAP

About 3 million Australians charged debts totalling $4.3bn by the Australian government may have been affected by an unlawful debt calculation practice.

The commonwealth ombudsman has said an “extremely large number of Australians [are] potentially significantly impacted” in response to the latest estimate released by the Department of Social Services.

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