Australian govt rakes back $725 from eBay sellers on welfare

The Australian Department of Human Services has been cracking down on welfare recipients who have sold more than AU$20,000 worth of items on eBay in one year, but so far, it has only managed to win back AU$725.

In June last year, it was revealed that the department had forced eBay to give over the identities of approximately 15,000 eBay users who had sold more than AU$20,000 of items in one year. This was done as part of a pilot to ensure that people on welfare payments from the government, who were also selling goods on eBay, were correctly declaring their income.

eBay was forced to hand over information such as usernames, email addresses, IP addresses, ABN, bank account details, and monthly sales figures.

In a response to a question on notice from estimates hearings late last year, the department revealed that, as of November 8, 2012, 71 cases were being investigated and had found nine debts to six customers with a value of AU$237,861, but so far, only AU$725 had been collected back.

The news comes amid a major campaign in Australia to pressure the Federal government to raise the Newstart allowance from AU$35 per day.

The questions on notice to the Department of Human Services also revealed that in the 12 months between October 2011 and the end of September 2012, the department experienced 137 IT outages, 28 of which were in an outsourced environment.

The department said that it was moving to reduce this over time, and saw a 27 percent decline in outages during July to September, compared to April to June.

The Department of Human Services has brought to an end a number of its outsourcing agreements with HP and IBM, and is in the process of reducing 14 of its datacentres across the department to just three. At the end of last year, the department completed bringing Medicare internally, ending the IBM contract with the agency.