FOI Disclosure Log

[Item 1] Procurement plans, work orders and inventory documents relating to the purchase of laptops for the department for the 2017-18 financial year.

[Item 2] Signed/Agreed support plans or Service Level Agreements with the vendors relating to Item 1

[Item 3] Options/advice papers provided to senior DSS executive about the purchase

Documents showing the amounts paid by salary and/or any additional payments/stipends/consultancy fees etc for each member of the Commission’s Independent Advisory Council on Redress.

Ministerial briefing documents, excluding drafts, prepared between 01 January 2015 and 23 November 2015 by the Department of Social Services with respect to: the abolition of belief-based exemptions, (both religious and conscientious); and, the narrowing of medical contraindication exemptions in Commonwealth legislation

A document showing:

The number of current age pensioners whose payment is determined under the asset test and who have an assessable amount for curtilage adjacent to their principal home on their record at 31 December 2017.

The number of age pensioners who have had their payment cancelled due to the application of the assets tests and at the time of cancellation had an assessable amount for curtilage on their record between 1 January 2016 and 31 December 2017.

All documents on the file titled ‘briefing on the outcome of the Whole of Government Debt Strategy Review in September 2017 (EF17/35266)’

[Item 1] A copy of the summary checklist required for submission of requirements under the National Rental Affordability Scheme (NRAS).

Documents in the last twelve months on the demand for the Carer Adjustment Payment and the granting of such assistance.

[Item 1] A copy of the impact assessment carried out by DSS and Business Information Services into the breach of DSS employee information identified in October, 2017 by Australian Signals Directorate.

All documents which relate to the decision of the Department of Social Services not to send a representative to the conference convened by AbilitySeer

All reports given to the Attorney-General, Attorney-General’s Department or Office of Legal Services Coordination regarding compliance with the Legal Services Directions, including but not limited to annual compliance certificates, for the period 1 July 2015 to present.

The gift register for the Department of Social Services for the previous five years.

Excluding staff names, contact details and signatures.

Item 1: A previous FOI request confirmed over 40 people are exempt from the cashless welfare card. What are the following demographics of those with current exemptions:

• Indigenous / Non Indigenous status
• Age
• Sex
• Payment type
• Housing status

Item 2: With over 40 people being granted exemption from the cashless welfare card trials, I would like to request the procedural guidelines for assessing this exemption.

Item 3: Please provide the procedure or guidelines used when assessing how rent assistance is paid to those who are subjected to the cashless welfare card, if rent assistance does form part of the 80/20 split please also provide evidence of rent assistance being included as a restrict-able payment within the allowing legislation or instrument.

Correspondence between the OAIC and the Department of Social Services pertaining to the exposure of DSS staffs' personal information by contractor Business Information Services.

The number of DV incident reports made available to Orima Research for their evaluation of the Cashless Debit Card Trials

National Rental Affordability Scheme documents relating to properties at 56, 58, 60, 62 1and 64 Church street Armadale (Strata Lots 5 to 1)

How many people currently reside in a postcode declared via instrument to be a trial area for the purposes of the cashless welfare card trails, collect a restrictable declared payment yet are not subjected to the welfare card.

Documents such as reports, ministerial/ executive briefings and attachments, Senate Estimates briefings, internal correspondence involving the Department Secretary such as emails, since 1 January 2017, relating to drug testing of welfare recipients.

The total cost of the cashless debit card trials in Ceduna and the East Kimberley from the beginning until 31 August 2017 and the total projected cost of the rollout of the cashless debit card in Bundaberg and Hervey Bay and the Goldfields.

The Method Report in relation to the Australian Priority Investment Approach to Welfare.

The number of people who will not receive the Energy Supplement as a result of its abolition for new recipients, by State and by electorate, by 2020 and the number of people currently in the workforce who will be affected by increasing the pension eligibility age to 70.

Documents that address the possibility of false positives in drug testing of welfare recipients

Documents regarding misuse of the cashless debit card in Ceduna, Kununurra and Wyndham regions.

The Debit Card Trial Services Agreement between the Commonwealth of Australia and Indue Limited

Access, for the purpose of review and research, to the minutes and materials, including materials provided to [the Child Support National Stakeholder Engagement Forum (the Forum)] members and submissions made by Forum members, of the meetings in which the changes [in the Child Support and Family Assistance Legislation Amendment (Budget And Other Measures) Bill 2010] were canvassed by the Forum.

Cost of implementing and managing the government’s trials of the Healthy Welfare Card (Ceduna and East Kimberley)

Correspondence in relation to the development, implementation and subsequent cancellation of the proposed trial of pre-commitment technology for poker machines.

24/04/2017 (original)

Number and type of individual complaints reported by Medibank Health Solutions about 1800RESPECT between 1 December 2014 and 31 January 2017

Costs of the cashless debit card trials in Ceduna and Kununurra.

Information upon which Schedule 5 of the Social Services Legislation Amendment Bill (Omnibus) 2017 was based.

Release certificates/correspondence certifying that release of information is necessary in the public interest under Section 208 of Social Security (Administration) Act 1991 between 01/01/2017 and 09/02/2017.

1800RESPECT Reports.

The most recent media Talking Points prepared by the Department.

Policy development documents for the evaluation and monitoring of the Try Test and Learn Fund.

… copies of material created that supports the Minister's claim that: We have found these pockets, and maybe that's being a bit generous, because they are very large pockets, of payment categories and rules that intersect in a way that mean you can earn as much through the welfare system, and I use the word 'earn' advisedly, you can earn as much as you do from working very hard. … created between July 1, 2016 and November 3, 2016. … [and] any documents related to the article Parental welfare pays more than work published in the Australian on October 28, 2016 and the article Myth busted: Stay-at-home parents don't get more than those who work published in the Age and the Sydney Morning Herald on October 29 and October 30, 2016.

23/12/2016
(Primary decision)

02/02/2017
(Internal review decision)

a) An up-to-date copy of the ‘NRAS Investigations Referrals and Scam Register’ (referred to at footnote 14, p24 of the Australian National Audit Office’s Report No, 23 2016-17) and
b) documents regarding the 32 referrals from DSS’s NRAS Branch to its Investigations Branch (referred to at paragraph 2.24, p24 of the Australian National Audit Office’s report No. 23 2016-17).

1. No. of paid parental leave (PPL) recipients by income range;
2. Estimated no. of PPL recipients who will no longer be eligible for PPL as result of Government’s proposed changes to PPL and their median income;
3. Estimated no. of PPL recipients who will lose part of their PPL entitlements as result of proposed changes and their median income; and
4. Estimated no. of PPL recipients who will be unaffected by proposed changes to PPL.

a) Reports after 1 Jan 2016 about groups of people, including international students, homeless people and low-income earners, who access NRAS; and

b) Communications  after 1 Jan 2016 to the federal government about groups of people who access NRAS

The first Report on the 6-month Review of the Cashless Welfare Card Trial submitted by the Department to the Minister's office, excluding information relating to the WA component of the trial.

Most recent figures detailing no. of welfare recipients of income support and benefits by payment type and country of birth.

Documents regarding recruitment and review process for APS 6 State Programme Management, Support and Advice: Service Delivery positions.

PwC and Kruk Reports - Consolidated documents - Redacted.

The Australian Government’s annual and monthly expenditure on the unemployment benefit and the number of unemployment benefit recipients for the past four financial years.

The number of payment summaries for the 2015-16 financial year issued to staff after 14 July 2016 and why these payment summaries, issued after 14 July 2016, were not issued on or before 14 July 2016.

Current incoming government briefing documents.

Please provide a copy of the contract [with Autism CRC] showing precisely what the contractor is to deliver.

Please also provide documents (if any) showing all changes to tender or the subsequent contract relating to the research that was/is contracted.