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WF-QMVDDA

Australian Automated Debt Assessment System Issued False Notices to Thousands

Australian Department of Human Services (DHS)’s automated debt assessment system issued false or incorrect debt notices to hundreds of thousands of people, resulting in years-long lawsuits and damages to welfare recipients.

Date it happened
2015-07-01
Organisation involved
Australian Department of Human Services
Product, system or model
Automated tax and welfare compliance system.
Where this came from
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Attribution

This incident was imported from AI Incident Database and is used under CC BY-SA 4.0. Our additions to it — the structured fields, the translation, the checks against other reports — are published under the same licence.

This is a record of what was reported, not a finding that anyone broke the law. If it names your organisation and you believe it is wrong, the corrections process is free and open to everyone.