Jobseekers in Australia had their Centrelink payments suspended more than 450,000 times in the September quarter for not meeting their mutual obligations, reports The Guardian, citing data from Services Australia. The data shows the majority of payment suspensions are related to mutual obligations, the controversial requirements imposed on jobseekers. The obligations have been labelled as ‘punitive’ and counterproductive by some privatised employment services running the system.

Between July and September this year, 502,698 jobseeker payments were suspended, averaging more than 160,000 a month, the data obtained by Guardian Australia shows. The top reason for payments being suspended was people not meeting their mutual obligations requirements imposed by a job agency (418,934 suspensions). Payments were suspended another 31,244 times after job agencies reported that a jobseeker had missed a scheduled appointment.

A Department of Employment and Workplace Relations spokesperson said 50% of the payment suspensions were ‘resolved in four business days’. “Note that around 90% of payment suspensions do not cause a delay to the individual’s payment as the suspension is resolved before their next payment date,” the spokesperson said. But Kristin O’Connell, a spokesperson from the Antipoverty Centre, said this proved the suspension did not need to happen. It comes as a parliamentary inquiry investigates the future of the employment services system, including the mutual obligations regime. Some employment agencies called for a return to the previous system where the power to suspend a person’s income was decided by Services Australia, not the employment provider.