Origin Energy wrongly received $2.5m from the welfare payments of almost 3,000 former customers using the much-criticised government-run Centrepay debit system.
Guardian Australia revealed last month that Origin and two other energy retailers, AGL and Ergon, had used the Centrepay system to wrongly take money from the welfare payments of former customers.
The government has, until now, refused to say how much Origin and Ergon received in overpayments and from how many customers.
But, under questioning by Greens senator Penny Allman-Payne in Senate estimates on Monday, Services Australia officials revealed that Origin had received $2.5m from 2,898 former customers via the Centrepay system.
“I can say that those moneys are being returned,” said Cathy Toze, general manager for working age and pension programs.
AGL wrongly received about $700,000 from more than 500 former customers, according to court documents, but it remains unclear how much Ergon may have received from former customers.
Services Australia also conceded that the Centrepay system had “lost its way” and confirmed they were now auditing the use of Centrepay by every energy retailer in the country.
Guardian Australia has previously revealed that AGL, despite being known to have taken $700,000 from former customers using Centrepay, had not been audited in the past two years.
“I think we’ve had a number of conversations in this forum as well as more broadly with audits and such that had indicated that Centrepay had lost its way,” Services Australia’s deputy chief executive, Kirsty Faichney, said.
“This has probably been going for a little while now and as a result of a group of advocates writing earlier in the year with very clear evidence of areas of concern, as well as our new CEO, we have commenced a review of Centrepay for the first time in a while.”
Last month, the government announced a major review of the Centrepay system, a budgeting tool to ensure welfare recipients can pay for essential services by giving approved businesses early access to their social security payments.
The government services minister, Bill Shorten, said at the time that three energy retailers had been referred to the Australian energy regulator over their receipt of Centrepay overpayments.
Services Australia would not reveal the identity of the three retailers on Monday.
But Toze said preventing future overpayments would be a significant focus of the newly announced review.
“We’re also having a really strong look at overpayments as part of compliance framework as well,” she said. “And a big part of that is working with customers and industry to really make sure that deductions are cancelled, that people aren’t being overcharged where their accounts aren’t current, but it’s that empowerment of people to ensure their responsibilities as well.”
Toze also said audits were now under way of every energy retailer’s use of Centrepay.
Guardian Australia has also revealed how Centrepay allowed predatory conduct by rent-to-buy businesses charging exorbitant amounts for home appliances, predominantly in Indigenous communities, and helped prop up an extreme Christian rehabilitation service practising forced baptisms and exorcisms on vulnerable residents.
Labor senator Louise Pratt, who has repeatedly raised concerns about the program over a period of years, told Senate estimates on Monday that she had received information suggesting that businesses were presenting themselves as drug and alcohol rehabilitation services to Services Australia in order to gain access to Centrepay, when they were not in fact accredited to operate as drug and alcohol rehabilitation services.
Toze told Pratt that the government had now written to rent-to-buy operators to inform them that they would now be subject to a $250 cap limiting their ability to receive payments via Centrepay.
“Some businesses have been removed from the program and in terms of household goods,” Toze said. “We’ve actually written to all businesses in that service category last month to advise of a cap that’s been introduced to $250 for the businesses, so we can start to reign that in a little bit while we also do longer-term review of the program and make an assessment of what types of businesses should be approved for Centrepay.”
