The Abbott government will spend more than $1 billion to replace the 1980s-era Centrelink computer to prepare the way for sweeping reform of the welfare system.
Human Services Minister Marise Payne told The Australian a new payments system would provide the government with long-term flexibility to implement welfare changes, better detect and prevent fraud and make dealing with Centrelink easier for more than seven million Australians.
Senator Payne and Social Services Minister Scott Morrison will today announce funding has been approved by cabinet for the seven-year project, which will be one of the world’s largest transformations of a social welfare IT system.
Centrelink’s existing Income Security Integrated System, which handles $100bn of payments to 7.3 million people a year, was built in the 80s and runs on a Model 204 mainframe that has been repeatedly patched up by successive governments but is unable to cope with the overhaul of the payments system suggested by welfare reformer Patrick McClure.
Last month, The Australian revealed the simple task of changing a letter for social security payments took 100 public servants six months and cost $500,000.
Senator Payne, who has described the existing system as like “running a turbo-charged Commodore 64 with air dams and a spoiler in the age of the iPhone” said a new computer was an important investment to properly address the challenges facing the welfare system.
“It is now more than 30 years old, inflexible, and increasingly unable to implement much-needed reforms in a timely and cost-effective manner,’’ Senator Payne told The Australian.
“The 1980s technology propping up the current system was built for an era of paper records. It is costly to maintain and incapable of take full advantage of the digital age.
“Much of the complexity people associate with claiming government assistance is a result of the red tape created by the ageing system.”
Senator Payne said a new computer would maximise the benefits of e-government and reduce the costs of administering the system for taxpayers. She said Centrelink customers would see the benefits as early as next year.
“Improvements to real-time data-sharing between agencies will mean that with customer consent, their information won’t have to be provided twice.”
She said that would also improve the government’s ability to detect and prevent fraud.
“Customers who fail to update their details with us will be less likely to have to repay large debts, and those who wilfully act to defraud taxpayers will be caught much more quickly,’’ she said.
Mr Morrison has called the computer “Walkman-era technology” and raised concern it would be an impediment to reforms to ease pressure on the fastest-growing area of government spending in the budget.
The computer is used for payments such as pensions, Newstart, youth allowance and family tax benefits.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Phillip Hudson
Quelle/Source: The Australian, 10.04.2015
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