Taren Preston, a social worker for the Department of Human Services, described what was happening on the inside of the unlawful scheme as those subjected to it became increasingly hopeless.

Returning from maternity leave after the scheme had been rolled out, Ms Preston said there was a noticeable change in attitudes towards people who had debts raised against them.

The program was introduced in 2015, and raised false debts against welfare recipients by comparing their fortnightly income against averaged annual income from the taxation office.

"There was a mantra of, 'So sad, too bad' that [senior officers] would say when I indicated people were distressed over the matter," Ms Preston said.

"I observed customers under the robodebt scheme become increasingly hopeless, and they felt as if there was no way out."

The scheme ran for more than four years, despite questions about its legality and its fairness being raised by public servants, media and those affected during that time.

Over hundreds of hours, the royal commission heard from just a handful of the 443,000 thousand people who had debts totalling $1.76 billion raised against them.

The commission on Friday also heard from Kathleen Madgwick, whose 22-year-old son Jarrad died by suicide in 2019, after learning of a $2000 debt raised against him.

Ms Madgwick said she wanted the government to stop raising debts against those who had no income, and were already under immense pressure.

"An automatic system will always fail to pick up vulnerability if nothing appears on a person's file, even though the vulnerability may be there," she said in her recommendations.

Last week, Matthew Thompson told the commission he thought the $11,000 debt raised against him had taken years off his life.

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He said it had compounded his mental health issues, and contributed to a heart attack he suffered.

"I really struggled with the way that politicians talk about people like me who access income support. I am made to feel like a welfare cheat," he told the commission.

"It seems to me that the powerful people are always able to take advantage of vulnerable people."

Mr Thompson, who worked as a casual photographer in Hobart at the time, described crying as he drove home from photographing a woman who had also been targeted by the scheme.

On Friday, commissioner Catherine Holmes called out reporting by the media for "patchy" coverage of the royal commission, which tended to flare when an ex-minister appeared.

She praised the work of journalists and observers who had taken to social media to record the hearings in great detail.

The commission will produce a report on the robodebt scheme by the end of June 2023.