Consumer watchdog urges crackdown on businesses using Centrepay to cause financial harm

It is alleged energy companies deducted money from welfare payments of people, including Indigenous Australians, who were no longer customers

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The consumer watchdog has joined a group of regulators, lawyers and financial advocates calling for a crackdown on predatory businesses using the government-run Centrepay to cause financial harm to welfare recipients, including Indigenous Australians.

Australian Competition and Consumer Commission deputy chair Catriona Lowe said the watchdog had heard complaints about Centrepay – a debit system giving businesses early access to people’s welfare money – for “many years”.