AGL allegedly received more than $700,000 in Centrepay payments from about 575 Centrelink clients who had ceased being its customers years before.AGL allegedly received more than $700,000 in Centrepay payments from about 575 Centrelink clients who had ceased being its customers years before.in two years despite revelations that the energy giant wrongly received more than $700,000 in welfare money from its former customers through the government-run debit system.
Services Australia, the agency that administers Centrepay, says it is also working to retrieve overpayments made to a second energy company, Queensland’s ErgonGuardian Australia has now learned that Services Australia has not audited either company’s use of Centrepay in the past two years, despite the overpayment problems.
“We work closely with regulators and refer cases to them to investigate to ensure they meet legislative requirements, including consumer protection legislation.” AGL told Services Australia in 2013 it had reviewed its use of the system and fixed the problem. It also said that it had taken steps to tell some customers to cancel their Centrepay deductions when they left AGL.