Dear Ms Byrnes,

I write in regard to your enquiry dated 25 October 2021 regarding
information held by Services Australia (the agency) under the Freedom of
Information Act 1982 (FOI Act).

Invalid request

In its current form, your request does not meet the requirements of the
FOI Act. Accordingly, the agency has treated your request as an enquiry.

The FOI Act provides a right of access to documents which are in the
possession of the agency and does not provide a right to request the
agency to provide information or answers to questions. Your request is
currently framed as a request for information rather than specific
documents.

For this reason, we consider your request to be invalid.

Assistance with making a valid FOI request

If you would like to make a valid FOI request, section 15 of the FOI Act
provides the criteria for making a valid request. Specifically, the
request should:

o be in writing and state it is for the purposes of the FOI Act
o have a return address, and
o relevantly, be a request for specific documents with enough
information to enable the agency to find them.

Further assistance

Should you have any general questions or require further information in
relation to your payments, or the agency’s processes, you may wish to
contact your local Centrelink Service Centre. However, if you require
statistical information relevant to the agency’s social security programs,
please consider contacting the agency’s statistics team via
[1][email address].

This matter has been finalised and no further action will be taken in
relation to your request.

Kind regards,

FOI Team

Information Access Branch

Legal Services Division

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Services Australia acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the land now
called Australia. We pay our respect to all Elders, past and present, of
all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander nations.

Please note: This email and any attachments may contain information
subject to legal professional privilege or  information that is otherwise
sensitive or confidential. If you are not the intended recipient of this
email, you are prohibited from using or disseminating this communication.
If you have received this  communication in error please notify the sender
immediately and permanently delete this email.

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References

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