Centrepay Review Centrepay is Centrelink’s automated bill-paying service. This works by deducting payments from Centrelink benefits prior to them being paid to the recipient. This in many ways is not a bad idea (at least in theory). Centrepay has been operating since 1998 (Carr, 11/11) and currently has 545,000 recipients and 13,500 businesses (Ibid) using it. On the 11th of November the (Federal) Minister for Human Services, Senator Kim Carr announced an independent enquiry into Centrepay and we felt this was a good time to run our analytical eye over this not too insignificant industry that turned over $1.76 billion (Ibid) last year. We reproduce here some of the text from the ‘official Centrepay brochure’ (Centrelink 5/12/12) What is Centrepay? Centrepay is a free direct bill-paying service offered to customers receiving Centrelink payments. Through Centrepay you can choose to pay bills by having a regular amount deducted from your payments and transferred electronically to an approved Centrepay organisation. Why use Centrepay? Parenting Payment changes for previously ‘grandparented’ recipients There are significant changes to Parenting Payment for those who were originally protected when the rules changed in 2008. The effective exemption of these persons from moving to NewStart Allowance when their youngest child turns six (partnered) or eight (single) has now been removed and if children are above this age, they will need to qualify for another payment after the 31st of December 2012. In theory most recipients whom this will affect should know (Centrelink claims to have told them all) but it is likely that this will still come as news to some persons. Anyone who has not been contacted needs to contact Centrelink ensure that they confirm eligibility for a payment post 1st of January 2013. Centrepay is voluntary. Customers who choose to use Centrepay benefit from its convenience and security knowing that their bills are under control. Instead of having large bills every month or quarter, your bills are paid in manageable amounts from your payments, making it easier for you to budget. Red Tape – SSRV Newsletter Volume 26 Issue 3 December 2012 We will return to a couple of points made in the brochure later our discussion. Centrepay: What it’s not Centrepay is not an entitlement or requirement under Social Security law. Thus it is not part of what people may assume is the usual Centrelink system (if these days this really means anything). Thus the appeal rights (etc) that one has under social security law do not apply. In effect Centrelink is operating as a payment supplier, not dissimilar to a bank or a post office. Whilst indeed there may be many significant improvements that could be made to the social security appeals system, one only realises how significant it is when one faces a system such as that of the banks or post offices or other such monoliths whose concerns about customer rights are at best ‘beholden’ to those of profit and self – protection. One could be forgiven furthermore for noticing a strong similarity between Centrepay and voluntary income management. There are, of course, differences, but you can imagine how useful it is when implementing income management to already have a system that can do the work at least with the automatic payments How it works (in theory) A person who wishes to utilise the system registers their desire to pay one or more suppliers with Centrelink. Many bills have notices like this amongst their payment options. It is actually very informative when you read this little snippet. Remember how Red Tape – SSRV Newsletter Volume 26 all that info from Centrelink that talked about ‘voluntary’? How voluntary is it if the supplier can send you the form? It is this ability (not related to this instrumentality we hasten to add) that the biggest issues rise. Positive things Centrepay in its very essence is a good idea. Somewhat cheekily (remembering where they stole the idea from) Financial Counselling Australia (the Financial Counsellor’s peak body) called their report into Centrepay “Centrepay – a good idea that has lost its way”. We’ll return to the report and the issues its raises a little later. Budgeting to pay for particularly utilities and rental can strain a lot of professional people’s budgets and brain space. A system that allows people on the lowest incomes in Australia to do it, particularly without having to think about it, is positive at least from the ‘bill shock’ point of view. Furthermore automatic payment of rental (particularly) should mean that people are less likely to be evicted due to rental arrears. ‘Pretenses and myth making’ Before we touch on the specific issues with Centrepay (particularly those raised by the Financial Counsellors) we need to discuss the pretenses and the myth making that things like Centrepay can contribute too. It is important to remember myths are things that create presumptions by other people and allow them to presume things that just are not correct. Centrepay is part of the great social security ‘budgeting’ myth. This is assisted by the existence of commercial budgeting organisations that fill daytime and late night television with their advertisements. The myth goes that the reason people struggle on social security payments is that they don’t budget correctly, not that the payment is appallingly low. In its submission to Prof Brian Howe’s Insecure Work Enquiry (see August’s Red Tape for more info about this) the National Welfare Rights Network: Issue 3 December 2012 “..warned that Australia’s unemployment benefit was so low as to “raise issues about its effectiveness” in providing the financial resources needed to assist Australians to find employment or participate in skills acquisition, study or training”. It is clearly not enough to live on either. But the existence of all these budgeting myths manifests itself in ways that would not seem to be connected until you realise they have one main thing in common – Centrelink. Centrelink like all bureaucracies has created or reinforced a series of myths like the one that budgeting allows people to overcome not having enough money. One has only to read a letter from Centrelink debt collection that sometime allows a person to reduce the repayments on their Centrelink debt for three months. The letters say “this will allow you to get your affairs in order and we will increase the rate of withholding”. This plays into the concept that budgeting allows you to lose more of your meagre income and you will still be ok. This is a complete fallacy. There indeed may be a budgeting crisis in many Australian homes, but it’s not in the homes of those on Centrelink. It is in the McMansions on the edge of capital cities where people are trying to keep up with the Nguyens by borrowing money to buy stuff they don’t need and then not paying the bills they have to. Ironically it’s not the poor who do this at all. We have no lesser authority than Paul Clitheroe (now the First Chair of Financial Literacy at Macquarie University – but better known as a TV finance commentator) who indicates “If you want to find genuine financial literacy in this country you go to the low income families, not the high ones” (ABC 20/11/12). When eating is reliant on whether or not you have money, you learn about money quickly. Financial Counsellors’ Concerns Our mates in the financial counselling industry know a thing or two about how things really are in Struggle St and we note here some of their concerns about Centrepay. The first and in a sense most important issue is which commercial organisations have access to Centrepay. If you go back to the Red Tape – SSRV Newsletter Volume 26 except we have on the front page from the official brochure the last line in the first paragraph indicates about a ‘Centrepay approved organisation”. Now this is very problematic. Because whilst (presumably now) Prof Clitheroe is keen on the lower income folks having financial literacy not all of them do. Unfortunately the mystique of a ‘Centrepay approved organisation’ may lead folk to think that the government approves of them (and so that they must be a ‘good’ organisation). One has only to consider the somewhat analogous relationship between the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) and certain finance companies that are no longer with us. It appears that some people believed ASIC was in some way a ‘watchdog’ over their money in the same way the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority does with banks. This is not the case. ASIC checks that the finance companies tell people of the risks of investing with them, but are not responsible for the finance companies. So when an organisation tells its prospective customers that it’s ‘Centrepay approved’ this may give credence where little if any belongs. The classic example of this is white goods and furniture rentals. Often these rental or leases cost the consumer two to three times what they would normally cost (FCA 22/11). Indigenous clients (particularly those who live in rural areas) have been victims of Centrepay approved organisations that sell them inflated funeral plans and furniture. Some of these goods cost the people buying them eight times the price they would normally pay (Ibid). Also, there’s no automatic cut-off with Centrepay. So unless someone realises that they have paid the sum off (and with eight times the price, who could tell?) you could keep on paying for a long time. The other big issue is that no-one checks the limits people can place on Centrepay. Far be it for us to say that there’s anything to be said that’s positive about income management, but at least that is only fifty percent. Issue 3 December 2012 Someone can actually put one hundred percent of their Centrelink payment to be deducted from Centrepay (ibid). Commercial credit providers can have their recovery of loans somewhat disallowed if they lend people more than they believe they can repay. For example repayments of thirty percent of a person’s income is usually considered the maximum allowable for a loan. Noting of course that the payment of rent and bills is different from loans, people still need money for food, transport and the like. Thus there needs to be a maximum percentage of a person’s entitlement that can be assigned to Centrepay, perhaps fifty percent. This might force Centrepay staff to think about how much someone who is already paying rental and bills can really afford a shonky lounge suite… http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2012/s3 636316.htm FCA (22/11) Centrepay Review Welcomed Media Release Financial Counselling Australia West End Qld http://financialcounsellingaustralia.org.au/C orporate/News/Centrepay-ReviewWelcomed Red Tape Alert If you have an email address and don’t receive SSRV’s electronic newssheet [Red Tape Alert] and would like to, email us @ the address below asking to be added to the RTA email list. Epilogue So whilst there are good reasons to have Centrepay, there are very good reasons for it to be reviewed, and the quality and legitimacy of the creditors allowed access to the scheme to be regularly reviewed. If anyone wishes to contribute to SSRV’s thinking for a submission to the review please contact Dale Nelson via SSRV’s advice line 9481 0355 (or 1800 094 164) . We hope all readers have a relaxed and warm summer and wish them well for 2013. References Carr (11/11) Independent Review Of Centrepay Media Release Minister for Human Services 11/11/12 http://www.mhs.gov.au/media/media_releas es/2012/11/12_nov_2012__independent_review_of_centrepay.php Contact Us: Centrelink (5/12/12) Centrepay Official Brochure: Phone: 9481 0355 or 1800 094 164 (outside Melbourne and Geelong. http://www.humanservices.gov.au/spw/cust omer/publications/resources/co022/co0221203en.pdf [email protected] / www.ssrv.org.au Social Security Rights Victoria Inc. ABC (20/11) Janda M, Australians need help with financial literacy AM ABC Radio 20th November 2012 (see next column for link) Red Tape – SSRV Newsletter Volume 26 Issue 3 December 2012
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