If not delivered return to PO Box 7820 Canberra BC ACT 2610
4 January 2017
Our reference: LEX 24850
Mr Brendan Molloy
Right to Know
By email:
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx Dear Mr Molloy
Acknowledgement of your Freedom of Information Request
I refer to your request for access to documents under the
Freedom of Information Act 1982
(the
FOI Act). I have taken your request to be for:
'Recently there has been a public furore about the seemingly automated delivery of
debt notices to persons receiving benefits from Centrelink programmes since early
December, and perhaps earlier[1].
I hereby request, under the Freedom of Information Act 1982, copies of the following
documents:
1) Technical reports or similar documents regarding known errors or probable risks
from introducing the new "compliance system";
2) Documents outlining the data sources used in the new "compliance system";
3) Documents listing the number of debt recovery requests sent on a monthly basis
(or similar) from January 2016 to the date of receipt of this request; and
4) An aggregate number of reported complaints from when the system was
introduced relating to false or miscalculated debt recovery requests.'
Your request was received by the department on 28 December 2016 and the 30 day
statutory period for processing your request commenced from the day after that date. Due to
the department's reduced activity period over December and January, we are seeking your
permission to extend the processing time by an extra
15 days to allow us to process your
request. This means the date you can expect to receive a decision from us is no later than
13 February 2016.
Unless we hear otherwise from you, we propose to treat this as an extension of time by
agreement under the FOI Act (s15AA). If however you have any concerns with that
timeframe, please contact by emailing us.
The department will advise you if a charge is payable to process your request and the
amount of any such charge as soon as practicable. No charge is payable for providing a
person with their own personal information.
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Your Address
The FOI Act requires that you provide us with an address which we can send notices to. You
have advised your electronic address is
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx .
We will send all notices and correspondence to this address. Please advise us as soon as
possible if you wish correspondence to be sent to another address or if your address
changes. If you do not advise us of changes to your address, correspondence and notices
will continue to be sent to the address specified above.
Disclosure Log
Please note that information released under FOI Act may be published in a disclosure log on
the department's website. Section 11C of the FOI Act requires this publication, however it is
subject to certain exceptions, including where publication of personal, business, professional
or commercial information would be unreasonable.
Exclusion of junior department employee details
The department is working towards ensuring that all employees have a choice about whether
they provide their full name, personal logon identifiers and direct contact details in response
to public enquiries. Where such details are included in the scope of a request, this may add
to processing time and applicable charges as it may be necessary to consider whether the
details are exempt under the FOI Act. On this basis, unless you tell us otherwise, we will
assume that these details are out of scope of your request and they will be redacted under
section 22 of the FOI Act.
Further assistance
If you have any questions please email
xxx.xxxxx.xxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx
Yours sincerely
FOI Registration Officer
Freedom of Information Team
FOI and Litigation Branch | Legal Services Division
Department of Human Services
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Department of Human Services
