Dear Department of Human Services,

Hope you’re doing well. A number of the documents contained on the operational blueprint are flagged as potentially exempt, however I think these should be released under the Information Publication Scheme.

The documents I’m interested in are:

107-01000000 General information about debts
107-02000000 Identifying and investigating Centrelink debts
107-02010000 Identifying a Centrelink debt
107-02010010 Defining excess payment, legally recoverable debt and finalised no debt
107-02010020 Australian Taxation Office (ATO) identity fraud and debts
107-02020000 Types of Centrelink debts and how they are generated
107-02020010 Debts resulting from internal transfers and clearances
107-02020020 Investigating the source and cause of the debt
107-02020030 Actioning negative adjustments on the Assessment Results (AR) screen
107-02020040 Create a new debt record manually on the Debt Management and Information System (DMIS)
107-02020050 Creating a new institution debt record on the Debt Management and Information System (DMIS)
107-02020060 Creating a new organisation debt record on the Debt Management and Information System (DMIS)
107-02030000 Identifying and managing debt activities on the Centrelink system
107-02030020 Locating debts in the Debt Management and Information System (DMIS)
107-02030030 Viewing and updating Interest Charge (IC) via Financial Customer Care in Customer First
107-02040000 Investigating Centrelink debts
107-02040010 Gathering and substantiating information when investigating debts
107-02040020 Acceptable documents for verifying income when investigating debts
107-02040030 Investigating administrative or computer error debts for Social Security payments
107-02050000 Overview of Centrelink debts and recovery processing
107-02050010 Debt recovery information for non Debt Management Officers
107-02050020 Inter-environment transfer of debts
107-02050030 Debt ownership
107-02050040 Debts and nominees
107-02060000 Reports and systems information for Centrelink debt management
107-02060010 Overview of the Debt Management and Information System (DMIS)
107-02060020 Debt Management and Information System (DMIS) screens
107-02060030 ESSentials/Debt Management and Information System (DMIS) interface
107-02060040 Internal systems interface with the Debt Management and Information System (DMIS)
107-02060050 Debt Management and Information System (DMIS) reports
107-02060060 The Performance Measurement report in the Debt Management and Information System (DMIS)
107-02060070 Management Information Reports Facility (MIRF) debt reports
107-03000000 Calculating Centrelink entitlements when investigating debts
107-03010000 Determining the start day of entitlements
107-03010010 Using the correct date of effect when raising debts
107-03010020 The order in which income affects payment components when calculating debts
107-03020000 Using Centrelink debt calculators
107-03020010 Earnings Apportionment Tool (EAT)
107-03020020 Using ADEX to explain a system generated debt
107-03020030 Using the MultiCal debt calculator
107-03020040 Payment Details Download Sheet (PS Tool)
107-03030000 Manually calculating Centrelink entitlements
107-03040000 Perpetual Centrelink Calendar
107-04000000 Raising Centrelink debts and advising the customer
107-04010000 General procedures for raising Centrelink debts
107-04010010 Completing the Debt Determination and Submission (SS312) form
107-04010030 Sending Account Payable letters
107-04010040 Actioning an undetermined debt on the Debt Management and Information System (DMIS)
107-04010050 Modifying account details on undetermined and determined debts raised in the Debt Management and Information System (DMIS)
107-04010060 Setting up manual reviews in the Debt Management and Information System (DMIS)
107-04010070 Quality On Line (QOL) checklist for debt activities
107-04010080 Deleted debts
107-04010090 Debts raised over duplicate, multiple or intertwined Customer Reference Numbers (CRN)
107-04010100 Requesting refunds from third parties
107-04010110 Requesting refunds and raising debts for payments made after death of customer
107-04010120 Raising debts for deceased customers for payments received prior to death
107-04010130 Recalled payments not received by the department
107-04020000 Raising Social Security debts
107-04020010 Raising Subsection 1223(1) debts arising before 1 July 2001
107-04020020 Raising Subsection 1223(1) debts
107-04020030 Raising Subsection 1223(2A) duplicate instalment debts (pre 1 July 2001)
107-04020040 Raising original and replacement cheque debts
107-04020050 Raising Subsection 1223(5) debts caused by the grant of an incorrect rate (pre 1 July 2001)
107-04020060 Raising subsection 1223(7) debts for non-income/assets tested rate components
107-04020070 Raising Subsection 1223AA debts for prepayments, including prison release payments, Crisis Payment (CrP) and Anticipated Payment
107-04020080 Raising debts resulting from a failure to provide Tax File Numbers (TFNs)
107-04020090 Telephone Allowance (TAL) debts
107-04020100 Raising Subsection 1223(1C) debts for Carer Payment (CP)
107-04020110 Raising Subsection 1223(7A) debts for Gap Supplement (Parenting Payment)
107-04020120 Raising subsection 1223A debts for commutation of asset-test exempt income streams contrary to subsection 9A(2), 9B(2) or 9BA (2)
107-04020130 Contravention Debts (failure to notify) under the Social Security Act 1991
107-04020140 Raising Section 1224AB debts where more than one person has joint and several liabilities for a debt
107-04020150 Raising Education Entry Payment (EdEP) debts
107-04020160 Section 1224C debts raised under the Data-Matching Program (Assistance and Tax) Act
107-04020170 Calculating an overpayment affected by an International Agreement
107-04020180 Raising Pension Bonus Scheme (PBS) debts
107-04020190 Raising Seniors Concession Allowance (SCA) debts
107-04020200 Raising debts for One-off Payments to Older Australians
107-04020210 Raising Pension Supplement debts
107-04020220 Raising Seniors Supplement Payment debts
107-04020230 Raising of Social Security debts due to linking of same-sex partner
107-04030000 Raising debts of advance payments
107-04040000 Comparable foreign payment lump sum arrears debts
107-04040020 Finalising embargoes - action for International Services (CIS)
107-04040050 Non-standard recovery for debts arising from Foreign Pension Data Exchange
107-04040060 New Zealand Agreement outgoing embargo – action for International Services (CIS)
107-04060000 Family assistance debts
107-04070000 Paid Parental Leave scheme debts
107-04070010 Parental Leave Pay (PPL) debt raising and recovery
107-04070020 Apportioning Parental Leave Pay (PPL) debts between employers and employees
107-04070030 Dad and Partner Pay (DAP) debt raising and recovery
107-04070060 Double dipping of Double Orphan Pension (DOP)
107-04080000 Raising debts for family assistance, Double Orphan Pension (DOP) and Assistance for Isolated Children (AIC) payments
107-04080010 Duplicate instalments of Family Assistance payments
107-04080020 Family Assistance advance debts
107-04080040 Debts arising from Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) stay orders
107-04080050 Person other than payee obtaining a Family Assistance cheque payment
107-04080060 Raising Parental Income Test (PIT) debts for Assistance for Isolated Children (AIC) Scheme
107-04080070 Maternity Allowance (MAT) and Maternity Immunisation Allowance (MIA) debts (from 01 July 2000 to 01 July 2004)
107-04080080 Raising Baby Bonus (BBY) debts after 1 January 2009
107-04080100 Effect of bankruptcy on family assistance overpayments
107-04090000 Raising overpayments arising from Family Tax Benefit (FTB) reconciliation
107-04090010 Family Tax Benefit (FTB) reconciliation debts where actual income was used
107-04090020 Overpayments where estimated income details were used in reconciliation
107-04090040 Re-reconciliation Family Tax Benefit (FTB) overpayments
107-04090050 Explaining Family Tax Benefit (FTB) reconciliation overpayments
107-04090060 Family Tax Benefit (FTB) and Child Care Benefit (CCB) debts for the 2000-2001 income year
107-04090070 Family assistance re-reconciliation advice Q418 (including statement of recoverable amount)
107-04090090 Qualification debt identified in FTB reconciliation result or when completing activity that triggers FTB reconciliation
107-04100000 Raising Child Care debts prior to 2 July 2018
107-04100010 Childcare Assistance debts prior to 1 July 2000
107-04100020 Child Care Benefit (CCB) overpayments arising from reconciliation and lump sum claims
107-04110000 Manual Follow-ups (MFU) for family assistance reconciliation recovery
107-04110060 Shared care or student child income debts 2000-01 raised prior to reconciliation
107-04110070 Manually waiving family assistance reconciliation debts where there is no Manual Follow-up (MFU) activity
107-04120000 Raising and attribution of Service Update debts
107-04130000 Raising Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act 2013 (PGPA) debts
107-04130010 Raising debts associated with civil and criminal action
107-05000000 Recovery and non recovery of Centrelink debts
107-05010000 Managing recovery and non recovery of Centrelink debts
107-05010010 Outbound debt recovery process
107-05010020 Debt Recovery general information
107-05010030 Delegations of managing debt
107-05010040 Roles and quality service standards for Debt Management Officers (DMOs)
107-05010050 Safeguarding customer privacy when raising and recovering debts
107-05010060 Tax agents authority to enquire on behalf of customers
107-05010070 Cost effectiveness when recovering debts
107-05010080 Gathering and substantiating information when recovering debts
107-05010090 Tax File Number Declaration Form (TDF) Debtor matching reviews
107-05010100 Negotiation of debt repayments with customers
107-05010110 Financial Circumstance assessment for debt recovery
107-05020000 Withholdings for debt recovery
107-05020010 Third party withholdings for debt recovery
107-05020020 Procedures for non Debt Management Officers when arranging withholdings to recover debts
107-05020030 Procedures for Debt Management Officers when arranging withholdings to recover debts
107-05020040 Standard withholding rate table
107-05020050 Arranging cash repayments to recover debts
107-05020060 Voluntary deduction (direct debit) arrangements to recover debts
107-05020070 Discounting arrangements for recovery of debts
107-05030000 Reviewing cash instalment and withholding arrangements
107-05030010 Reviewing a cash instalment arrangement for recovering a debt
107-05030020 Reviewing a withholding arrangement for recovering a debt
107-05030030 Statement of Debt
107-05030040 Reviewing a cash or withholding arrangement
107-05040000 Managing broken recovery arrangements for Centrelink debts
107-05040010 Actioning broken regular/irregular cash arrangements
107-05040020 Actioning broken voluntary deduction (direct debit) arrangements
107-05040030 Actioning broken garnishee recovery arrangements
107-05040050 Actioning broken agency recovery arrangements
107-05050000 Placing garnishees for Centrelink debts
107-05050010 Garnishee of continuing income to recover debts
107-05050020 Financial Institution (FI) garnishees to recover debts
107-05050030 Compensation garnishees to recover debts
107-05050040 Tax garnishees to recover debts
107-05050050 Other types of garnishees to recover debts
107-05050060 Varying or ceasing a garnishee notice to recover debts
107-05050070 Failure to comply with a garnishee notice
107-05050080 Garnishee customer does not agree with decision
107-05060000 Civil procedures to recover Centrelink debts
107-05070000 Effect of bankruptcy on recovery of Centrelink debts
107-05070010 What to do when a customer is bankrupt
107-05070020 Is a refund of repayments payable to a bankrupt customer
107-05070030 Deciding whether a debt was due to fraud for a bankrupt customer
107-05070040 What to do with Bankruptcy Act Part IX Debt Agreements and Bankruptcy Act Part X Personal insolvency Agreements (PIAs)
107-05080000 Recovery of Centrelink debts by other agencies
107-05080010 Automatic referrals of Centrelink debts to an External Collection Agent (ECA)
107-05080020 Re-referring debts to an External Collection Agent (ECA)
107-05080030 General information about External Collection Agents (ECA)
107-05080040 Recovery of debts via the Department of Veterans' Affairs (DVA)
107-05080050 Recovering Centrelink debts from customers living overseas
107-05080060 Referring Centrelink debts to the Ministry of Social Development (MSD) to recover
107-05080070 Processing a liaison form, recovery of Australian overpayment from the New Zealand Ministry of Social Development (MSD)
107-05080080 New Zealand Agreement debt recovery – action for International Services (CIS)
107-05090000 Special or unusual recovery action
107-05090010 Recovering debts arising out of payments made after the death of a customer
107-05090020 Recovering debts from a deceased customer's estate
107-05090030 Recovery from mutually liable co-debtors
107-05090040 Recovery from non complying garnishee debtors
107-05090050 Recovering other government department (OGD) debts from Centrelink payments
107-05090060 Recovering debts from organisations
107-05090070 Raising and recovery of Savings bonuses for older Australians
107-05090080 Recovery of GST Assistance Scheme (GAS) debts
107-05090090 Recovery of One-Off Payment for the Aged (2001-02 Budget) debts
107-05090100 Recovery of Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act 2013 (PGPA) overpayments
107-05090120 Recovery of Student Assistance Recoveries System (STARS) debts
107-05100000 Charges and penalties for Centrelink debts
107-05100010 Ceasing or adjusting penalty interest
107-05100020 Late payment charge and interest under the Student Assistance Act 1973
107-05100030 Administrative Charge on Social Security Act 1991 debts
107-05100040 Recovery Fee applied to debts resulting from incorrect declaration of income
107-05100050 Interest Charge (IC) for Centrelink debtors no longer receiving payments
107-05110000 Non recovery of Centrelink debts, finalised 'no debt'
107-05110010 Finalised 'no debt' (FND) or 'zeroing' debts that are not legally recoverable
107-05120000 Non recovery, waiving Centrelink debts
107-05120010 Administrative error waivers
107-05120020 Small debt waivers
107-05120030 Special and unusual circumstances waivers
107-05120040 Reversal of waivers
107-05120050 Late 2010 and early 2011 national disasters (flooding and Cyclone Yasi) Debt Waiver
107-05120060 Effect of waiving a debt on the recovery fee
107-05120070 Victorian Bushfires Debt Waiver
107-05130000 Non recovery, writing off Centrelink debts
107-05130010 Temporary write off of Centrelink debts
107-05130020 Permanent write off of Centrelink debts
107-05130030 Six Year Limitation Write off
107-05140000 Adjusting, adding and refunding payments on Centrelink debts
107-05140010 Adjusting payments on debts
107-05140020 Manually adding payments to debts
107-05140030 Refunding payments on debts
107-05140040 Schedule of future repayment arrangements
107-05140050 Refunding BPAY® payments
107-05150000 Debt repayments made to the Department of Human Services not on the Debt Management and Information System (DMIS)
107-09120000 Raising student payment debts
107-09120010 Student Assistance Act 1973 debts
107-09120020 Raising Fares Allowance (FAA) debts
107-09120030 Raising Financial Supplement loan (FSL) debts
107-09120040 Raising Parental Income Test (PIT) debts for Youth Allowance (YA) and ABSTUDY payments
107-09120050 Raising under 18 year old ABSTUDY payment to parent or institution debts
107-09120060 Raising debts for students who fail to notify of ceasing studies
107-09120070 Raising Family Pool debts from 1 July 2010
107-09120080 Raising debts relating to the Family Actual Means Test (FAMT) for Youth Allowance (YA) and ABSTUDY
107-17060100 Departure Prohibition Orders (DPO)
107-17060101 Issue a Departure Prohibition Order (DPO)
107-17060102 Issue a Departure Authorisation Certificate (DAC)
107-17060103 Revoke a Departure Prohibition Order (DPO)
107-17060104 Vary a Departure Prohibition Order (DPO)
107-17060105 Activation or retention of a Departure Prohibition Order (DPO) or Departure Authorisation Certificate (DAC)
107-17060106 Review or appeal a Departure Prohibition Order (DPO) or Departure Authorisation Certificate (DAC) decision
107-17060107 Substitute Departure Authorisation Certificate (DAC) return date
107-18040300 Raising ISP debts for customers granted PPL and DAP for children born or adopted on or after 1 October 2016
107-18092721 Waiver of debts resulting from the assessment of lump sum arrears of a reversionary income stream
107-19060301 Child Care Subsidy (CCS) debts
107-19060353 Raising debts in Process Direct
107-19060356 Recovering debts in Process Direct
107-19060358 Screens in the Debt Management Application

With respect, I am sure the Department is aware of the FOI Guidelines, specifically the section related to the Information Publication Scheme.

Please initially consider this an administrative request for access to documents. If you aren’t able to treat it this way, please consider it a request for documents under the Freedom of Information Act and the Information Publication Scheme.

Please let me know if you would like to discuss this request further.

Yours faithfully,

Ben Fairless

Dear FOI.LEGAL.TEAM,

Thanks for your message. Should it remove a practical refusal reason, I’m happy to revise my request to the one you suggested:

‘Operational Blueprints that are not already publicly available from the list contained on the following URL: http://operational.humanservices.gov.au/...

To avoid doubt, this would include any document either not listed, or listed as being potentially FOI exempt.

Please let me know if this removes the practical refusal reason and if you’re happy to process this request administratively.

Yours sincerely,

Ben Fairless

Dear Robert,

Sorry for the delay in replying to your latest email.

I contend that the charges of $777 have been wrongly assessed. The Department has an obligation under Part II of the FOI Act to publish operational information under the Information Publication Scheme. An FOI applicant should not bear the costs of the department complying with its legal obligations.

In addition, while I believe the charge has been wrongly assessed, even if had not been I would also contend that the charge should be reduced. The requested information relates to how the Department deals with individuals who owe a debt.

There is extensive public scrutiny around how the Department is publishing requests. The "#robodebt" tag, which is used to refer to the Department's Online Compliance program, has a significant number of stories in relation to alleged debts owed to the Department.

I trust that the Department will be able to consider my contentions and waive the charges associated with this request. If the department would like to discuss the matter further, let me know how we can have a chat on the phone.

Yours sincerely,

Ben Fairless