Centrelink won’t ‘trawl’ registers
Centrelink has assured it will not monitor state relationship registers in order to catch people out in same-sex relationships but warns fraudsters will be investigated.
Speaking on the Rainbow Report on Melbourne gay radio station JOY 94.9FM, Centrelink general manager Hank Jongen said the agency was determined to be sensitive to the gay and lesbian community and will not be keeping watch on state relationship registers unless given reason to.
We do not trawl those records looking for potential couples, it’s not our intention, he said.
What might happen, however, is that a couple are registered and don’t declare it to us.
Through maybe an anonymous tip-off we’re alerted to that. I can tell you then we would do a one-on-one investigation.
We are custodians of taxpayers’ money. If we’re alerted to fraudulent activities, then we will pursue it.
As of July 1, all same-sex couples on benefits must notify Centrelink of their partner status as part of last year’s same-sex equality reforms.
Jongen said an advertising campaign between March and July was designed to inform the community of the changes and staff will be trained to be sensitive to the community’s difference.
We’re determined to get all the language right, we’re determined to make sure the forms and questionnaires and the material that we produce is sensitive to what the government is trying to achieve which is pure non-discrimination.
We, of course, have gay and lesbian staff working for the organisation. We have again a huge segment of staff that are attuned to the issues.
I’ve no doubt that there’ll be some homophobic staff that we will need to target as part of the introduction of these processes.
Jongen said Centrelink would rely on the community to come forward to disclose relationships as the government agency will not send out individual letters asking couples to disclose their status.
Its all nonsense. I asked today about the same sex changes and asked rightly to speak to a gay or lesbian officer…duh sorry. Oh, but its okay to have ‘culturally sensitive officers’ at bankstown. Would they have the nerve to get a muslim woman to talk to a man re her sex life-i bloody dont think so, so why the hell should I??? Oh, by the way the staff member I had, had to ask when the training was, to be told they were all qualified to answer any questions!
Correction to paragraph 5 – What that meant to me is that my Newstart payments are not affected by my partner’s income.
This week I applied for the Newstart allowance.
I reported that I lived with my partner.
The centrelink service representative read through the application and when he discovered that my partner was male and I was male he had to refer the matter to his supervisor for assistance.
It turned out the under the current legislation same sex partners are not recognised as a defacto married couple.
What that meant to me is that my Newstart payments are affected by my partners income.
The centrelink service representative informed me that there would be changes later in the year which will allow Centrelink to recognise same sex relationships as defacto marriages and at that time I will have to inform Centrelink that I am living with my partner and my payments will probably be adjusted to take my partner’s income into account.