{"id":39659,"date":"2023-10-20T15:03:41","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:03:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/centrelink-prepares-roll-out-of-front-line-virtual-assistants-powered-by-artificial-intelligence-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T15:03:41","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:03:41","slug":"centrelink-prepares-roll-out-of-front-line-virtual-assistants-powered-by-artificial-intelligence-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/centrelink-prepares-roll-out-of-front-line-virtual-assistants-powered-by-artificial-intelligence-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"Centrelink prepares roll out of front-line virtual assistants powered by artificial intelligence – StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/div>\n

As the pressure ramps up on Human Services Minister Alan Tudge over Centrelink\u2019s most recent attempts to claw back billions paid out through the welfare system, the department is putting together a new procurement panel for \u201cadvanced customer aggression training\u201d and preparing to roll out front-line virtual assistants.<\/span><\/p>\n

The request for tenders to join a panel of advanced customer aggression training suppliers went out last year, only just before the rolling #notmydebt public relations disaster hit the headlines and began to build up steam over the summer break, rapidly getting its own website where aggrieved citizens share their tales of woe<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Department of Human Services requires \u201cmore robust, specific and experiential learning options to equip service delivery staff with de-escalation techniques and skills when managing challenging, escalating, and risky customer aggression situations\u201d for customer-facing staff, team leaders and managers, according to the notice<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As well as de-escalation, negotiation and other conflict resolution techniques, groups of up to 18 staff will learn how to \u201csafely disengage from the customer\u201d when it isn\u2019t working, as well as emergency response and post-incident procedures.<\/p>\n

The department suggests the courses might include role-playing scenarios filmed by the training provider.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, DHS has also been playing around with virtual assistants, so perhaps one day, the worst aggressive customers will be able to do is rage against the machine, literally.<\/p>\n

One virtual assistant called Roxy, based on Microsoft Cortana technology, is reportedly already answering almost 80% of questions raised internally by claims processing staff<\/a> while two other separate systems based on IBM\u2019s Watson<\/a> might begin taking on front-line customer service duties in the next few months.<\/p>\n

Customer aggression faced by Centrelink can take many forms and occur through various communication channels.<\/p>\n

The Community and Public Sector Union has long argued it is far too common and a result of inadequate staffing or mandatory policy and procedures that are not fair to welfare recipients, such as the new arrangements for raising and recovering suspected over-payments.<\/p>\n

The union has warned of a \u201cperfect storm\u201d when the debt recovery program combines with the annual \u201cavalanche\u201d of student applications for Youth Allowance.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe serious problems with this debt recovery program are piling on even more pressure, and feeding more aggression from understandably frustrated customers,\u201d said assistant national secretary Michael Tull.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe hold very serious concerns about Centrelink\u2019s ability to cope in coming months.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur members working in Centrelink, Medicare and Child Support were already desperately overstretched.<\/p>\n

“They\u2019ve been struggling in a system that\u2019s been in crisis for years now. The serious problems with this debt recovery program are piling on even more pressure, and feeding more aggression from understandably frustrated customers.\u201d<\/p>\n

The data-matching system flags possible debts by simple comparison of Tax Office and Human Services data and appears to require significant human interpretation<\/a> to be an effective digital tool.<\/p>\n

Elements of it began under the previous government but the program was massively scaled up last year, in terms of how much money the current government wants it to get back, and how quickly.<\/p>\n

It seems that automating more of the process to speed it up has led the system to spit out notifications of potential debts that are based on clumsily averaging out a whole year\u2019s income, so the system arrives at a uniform figure for monthly income that in many cases is wildly inaccurate, without human intervention to check over them.<\/p>\n

Compounding the problem, the agency demands the supposed debtor prove its assumption is incorrect if they want to dispute the supposed debt.<\/p>\n

It is normally the creditor\u2019s role to show its working-out<\/a>, according to generic advice about debt collection from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.<\/p>\n

Tudge denied the problems with the system and said it would continue<\/a> but later said the government would try to refine and improve it in coming months.<\/p>\n

The minister says one problem is a lot of people are not receiving the initial letters advising them of a potential debt and giving them less than a month to respond, because Centrelink has the wrong address on file, so the first notification they get takes a more aggressive form.<\/p>\n

Now, the minister says Centrelink will make more effort to ensure the initial requests are actually received by the addressees, by cross-checking with other databases like the electoral roll and using other communication channels.<\/p>\n

Other minor changes include adding the agency\u2019s 1800 phone number to the letters and simplifying the language used.<\/p>\n

In a more substantial concession, the debt recovery process will be now put on hold for people who receive the initial requests for more information about their past finances and request an internal review.<\/p>\n

According to a report in The Australian<\/em><\/a>, they won\u2019t have to start paying any claimed debt immediately \u201cprovided they can prove it was the first notification they received\u201d.<\/p>\n

Tudge maintains there is nothing wrong with sending letters to people who have received welfare payments to say there is a \u201cdiscrepancy\u201d and ask them to provide more information to clarify whether they owe the government money.<\/p>\n

He says it is not an \u201cerror\u201d if it turns out there is no debt to repay, but the result of the system functioning as intended<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Earlier in January, while Tudge was still on holiday, Social Services Minister Christian Porter said at that point, about 20% of around 170,000 people who received letters asking them to clarify data discrepancies had been able to prove they did not in fact owe anything.<\/p>\n

Tull, meanwhile, says DHS staff \u201con the ground\u201d could have told the government about the risks ahead of time and claims \u201calmost every\u201d data discrepancy flagged by the system ends up being a false alarm to some degree.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have members in Centrelink who\u2019ve been tasked with reviewing cases through this scheme saying in almost every case the poor customer ends up owing nothing, or just a fraction of the debt claimed,\u201d said the union leader.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn at least one case an initial debt for $9,000 ended up being $90. That\u2019s not a minor discrepancy but a clear sign of a failed system.\u201d<\/p>\n

This article was originally published on The Mandarin<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Follow StartupSmart on\u00a0Facebook<\/a>,\u00a0Twitter<\/a>,\u00a0LinkedIn<\/a>\u00a0and iTunes<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As the pressure ramps up on Human Services Minister Alan Tudge over Centrelink\u2019s most recent attempts to claw back billions<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61344,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39659"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39659"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39659\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61344"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}