$5 billion in wrong pension payments — 3 years, every quarter a miss

Services Australia made $5 billion in incorrect age pension payments over 3 years to June 2024:

- $3.67 billion overpaid (sent to people who shouldn't have received it at the amount paid)

- $1.33 billion underpaid (withheld from retirees who were entitled to it)

The age pension costs $62.2 billion per year — 8.4% of the entire federal budget. It is Australia's largest social support program.

Performance failures:

- Services Australia missed its own 80% timeliness target in every single quarter of the 3-year audit period (12/12 quarters)

- Worst quarter performance: 38.6% of claims completed on time

- A 2019 IT error resulted in $37 million in overpayments across 175,032 recipients — undetected for 5 years

- Complaint volumes surged 80% during the period while the recipient base grew only 2%

ANAO assessment: "Poor stewardship of public resources."

Per household: $5B in errors across 10.8M households = $463 per household in payment errors in a single 3-year period.

Sources:

- Accounting Times: https://www.accountingtimes.com.au/profession/services-australia-blundered-5-billion-in-pension-payments-in-3-years-audit-finds

- ANAO audit (January 2025)