<
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/dec/22/you-are-deceased-services-australia-bungle-results-in-woman-losing-bank-accounts-and-pension-twice>
"The Centrelink officer on the end of the phone to Eve* was telling her she was
dead. Eve, 74, who receives a carer payment, had called after she noticed an
extra $3,000 from Centrelink in her 81-year-old husband’s account in May this
year, and she was concerned they had been overpaid.
After calling multiple times, she reached someone from Services Australia who
looked up her account history.
“As far as we are concerned you are deceased,” the officer said.
The $3,000 was a bereavement payment made to her husband. It was then followed
by a letter to him apologising for his loss, and letting him know she had been
overpaid by a small amount, that would need to be returned, and that Centrelink
would be contacting her bank.
Within a few weeks, all her records were wiped, her bank accounts were shut
down, her energy concessions for the Gold Coast council were withdrawn and she
could not even book an Uber.
Eve went to Births and Marriages, who confirmed what she knew – she was alive."
The processes an organisation has in place to handle errors and mistakes when
they inevitably do happen are far more important than attempting to ensure they
don’t happen at all. It’s never possible to completely eliminate the
possibility of error, but handling the recovery poorly can lead to serious
reputational damage.
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
