Sometimes defective, maybe unlawful: what can be done about Australia’s crisis-ridden welfare system?

‘Centrelink payments can be stopped at any time, by someone who is unaccountable’, Kristin O’Connell says, a spokesperson for the Antipoverty Centre. Photograph: Jenny Evans/Getty Images

It’s a system designed to help Australians who most need it. Yet it’s created continuous scandals, with parts of it paused because the government can’t say if it’s operating legally.

Hundreds of thousands of Centrelink clients are affected by its frequent problems, being charged or overpaying debts incorrectly calculated as another class action is launched.