A debt collection agency contracted by the federal government to recover incorrect Centrelink payments has denied visiting the home of a Melbourne man who killed himself while receiving demands to repay money.
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Dun and Bradstreet chief executive Simon Bligh told a Senate inquiry into the Turnbull government's robo-debt recovery efforts that reports a debt collector's "calling card" had been left at the home of Melbourne florist and musician Rhys Cauzzo before he died in January were wrong.
The 28-year-old had received letters from the firm seeking repayment of an $10,000 debt on behalf of the Department of Human Services before taking his own life on Australia Day. A department spokeswoman said after the hearing the demands were not part of the automated debt-recovery processes, relying on controversial data-matching processes, but we identified through manual processes.
Mr Cauzzo, who was being treated for depression at the time of his suicide, received correspondence from Dun and Bradstreet on January 3 saying: "Need to speak to you about an urgent matter."
In February, The Saturday Paper reported Mr Cauzzo's mother had told police she believed the debt notices had contributed to her son's decision to take his own life. She said they pushed him "to his brink of despair".
At the hearing in Hobart on Wednesday, Mr Bligh said he was "100 per cent categoric" Dun and Bradstreet never made in-person visits as part of debt-recovery contracts with the department and said the company had strict criteria for people identified as vulnerable.
"Mr Cauzzo's death is a tragedy," he said.
"I expressed my condolences to his mother and we also wrote a statement of corrections to The Saturday Paper, which they declined to publish," he said.
"Dun and Bradstreet does not visit people's houses on behalf of the department. We don't have the power to garnish people's wages and any forms of communication we have are in a form agreed by the department."
"Mr Cauzzo got a letter. I think that was interpreted as someone had been round to his house and that's not correct," he said.
The hearing was told Centrelink had recalled all robo-debts from external agencies in mid-February, weeks after senior government ministers were denying the robo-debt system was not working effectively.
Mr Bligh said Centrelink debts would not impact individuals' credit scores and only one complaint for every 100,000 received had been upheld.
Greens family and community services spokeswoman Rachel Siewert said evidence that private debt collectors had worked to internal performance standards, including dollar figures for debt recovery, was seriously concerning.
"You have to ask how much public funds are being paid to a private debt collector for recouping debts that do not exist," she said.
"We have asked for further information on notice and when the full answer comes back on notice I will be scrutinising closely and will follow up.
"It is worrying that the debt collectors could not fully answer today what happens to personal data after the contract finishes and took some questions on notice."
The inquiry is due to report to Parliament in June.
