In November 2012 Senator Kim Carr announced an independent review into Centrepay.
The Centrepay review will:
- examine the controls, risk management and administrative processes in place to ensure the Centrepay service is used in a way that protects people’s entitlements
- examine the approaches taken to ensure Centrepay is used to distribute money to legitimate organisations providing services to people on a fair and reasonable basis, and the associated contract management approaches used
- provide suggestions about which businesses and services should have access to the Centrepay service, and services that might be excluded
- look at ways in which Centrepay can be used to build the financial capability of its customers and to assist them to manage their money in the best way possible
- examine the complaints and feedback mechanisms associated with Centrepay to ensure that issues are resolved in a fair way
- examine how Centrepay relates to other financial products and services available to the Department’s customers, and
- suggest future opportunities and directions for the Centrepay service.
On 8 April 2013 we provided a joint submission with the ACCC, highlighting concerns with Centrepay and potential ways of mitigating these concerns.