Automated welfare ‘engine’ was part of effort to overhaul payments system but then abandoned, with Bill Shorten saying it ‘wasn’t fit for purpose’
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The federal government paid the contractor Infosys $191m for an automated welfare payment calculator that only delivered one type of payment during a trial before it was abandoned as a failure.
The “entitlement calculation engine” was supposed to help Centrelink determine how much welfare recipients should be paid, based on their individual circumstances. It was one part of a much larger effort to overhaul Centrelink’s payment infrastructure.
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