Australia's Commonwealth Ombudsman has launched a formal investigation into the Albanese government's Integrated Assessment Tool (IAT), an algorithm-based system introduced in November 2024 to determine how much government-funded home care elderly Australians are eligible to receive. Hundreds of complaints have emerged, with assessors describing the tool as "cruel" and "inhumane," reporting that their professional role has been reduced to data entry since they are prohibited from overriding the algorithm's classifications — leaving some patients with less funding even as their health deteriorates. Critics, including aged care advocates and Greens senators, argue the system prioritises cost-cutting over appropriate care, drawing comparisons to Australia's discredited "robodebt" scandal, in which an automated welfare debt-recovery scheme was later found to have operated unlawfully.