Lucy Lorenti, survivor of the Esther Foundation, says she was subjected to complete financial control by the organisation, who made her sign up to Centrepay.Lucy Lorenti, survivor of the Esther Foundation, says she was subjected to complete financial control by the organisation, who made her sign up to Centrepay.
Over the past decade, consumer advocates have raised concerns that many of the businesses registered to access Centrepay may be causing financial harm to vulnerable customers. Court documents obtained by the Guardian reveal the staggering scale of AGL’s receipt of welfare money from former customers.
The documents also show Services Australia wrote to AGL years earlier, on 14 June 2013, warning it of “serious non-compliance” with Centrepay’s terms and conditions, including “a failure to cancel a Deduction after a Customer ceased to be an ongoing customer” and “a failure to notify Services Australia on becoming aware of overpayments”.
“AGL promptly reached out to Services Australia, the administrator of this payment service, to ask them to cancel the deductions and facilitate refunds to those impacted.”The Guardian can also reveal that the Centrepay system helped to prop up a disgraced Christian drug and alcohol rehabilitation centre run by the Esther Foundation in Western Australia.That included performing exorcisms and gay conversion practices on residents.
Lorenti said she always thought it “strange” the Centrelink staff didn’t question what was happening. “They’d sit you down and pull out a big ass pamphlet on why Centrepay is so good for the place,” she said. She said she was encouraged to sign a contract to pay $86 a fortnight for the TV using Centrepay. She said she did not receive a copy of the contract but commenced paying each fortnight. When those automated payments were interrupted in 2022, Denise said the company “started putting threats on me”.
“I didn’t do any complaint with Centrepay. I just continued to pay it because of the threats they kept giving me over the phone. And at the time I was in . There’s no court, there’s no government place that I could go to, or a lawyer and stuff like that. So I just kept paying back,” she said.
The company has strongly disputed these allegations, saying it is a “lifeline retail network” for remote communities and that Asic’s indefinite suspension is having a “disastrous impact” on its Indigenous customers.“Many of our customers do not have access to traditional credit like people in cities – they don’t have Visa, Mastercard nor can they easily sign up for buy now pay later services like Afterpay and Zip Pay.
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