Calls for adoption of
remaining Robodebt recommendations
Two years on from the findings of the 2023 Robodebt Royal Commission, the federal government has still not implemented all of its recommendations, the Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS) has said. As a result, income support recipients continue to receive cruel and potentially unlawful debt notices and payment suspensions based on automatic Robodebt-style compliance.
9 July 2025
ACOSS is calling on the federal government to adopt the remaining recommendations of the royal commission, including:
- Legislating a statute of limitations on debt recovery - a key recommendation that remains unaddressed.
- Refraining from recovering debts under review - the default position is to continue recovery even when a debt is under review, rather than pausing automatically. A person can request a pause to debt recovery if it is under review.
- Clarifying protections for people in vulnerable circumstances - it’s still unclear how people in severe hardship are systematically shielded from compliance actions that could worsen their situation.
- Introducing a duty of care - the government still has no formal obligation to ensure people are receiving the correct payment for their personal circumstances.
The Albanese Government has failed to fully implement the commissioner’s recommendations, including a statute of limitations on the recovery of old debts, establishing a duty of care for the Department, and automatically protecting people experiencing hardship from receiving compliance notices.
Calls from the Australian Council of Social Services and from Economic Justice Australia, comes ahead of an expected report from the Commonwealth Ombudsman into the so-called Targeted Compliance Framework.
Greens spokesperson for Social Services, Senator Penny Allman-Payne said: “Robodebt lives on today. It’s been two years since the Royal Commission and still Labor have refused to act on the commission’s recommendations to protect income recipients.
“Labor continues to aggressively target income support recipients using questionable and potentially unlawful automated debt collection practices that can see people lose access to income support payments that are already below the poverty line.
“We know people are still being flogged with ridiculous debt notices for supposed issues dating back to the 1970s, and the government still has no protections in place to prevent individuals already experiencing severe hardship from being further punished.
“Fully implementing these recommendations is the least that Labor could do to correct this cruel system ,which treats welfare recipients as suspects.
“The Greens are calling on Labor to implement the Robodebt Royal Commission’s recommendations in full now, and we’ll continue to fight to restore the Commonwealth Employment Service and bring an end to the punitive mutual obligations system.”
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