I never received the initial review letter as it was sent to an old address (I haven't been on Centrelink payments since Nov. 2013), nor a text message (although I have not changed my mobile number in this time). I only became aware of this 'debt' when I did my 2015/2016 tax return, and did not receive any money back - I discovered that my tax-return had been redirected straight to Centrelink as payment for a debt that I had no idea existed.
I eventually started receiving calls and voicemails from the Dun and Bradstreet debt collectors, which I assumed for a long time were spam, as it was automated recorded messages, with no specific reference to Centrelink - and so I did not follow up on these calls thinking that they were unrelated to Centrelink.
In December 2016 I visited a Centrelink Office, and after waiting 1.5 hours to speak to someone, was discouraged from finding out how the debt occurred as "it's common that people investigate and find out they actually owe more". After a lot of back and forth trying to find out where this debt could have come from I was told about the new income averaging system.
I requested a record of my reported earnings for the period in question and then spent hours trawling through payslips and comparing my actual income to what I reported, and what Centrelink claimed I should have reported. There was not one occasion in which my reported earnings could have resulted in an overpayment to me from Centrelink - only one mistake where I accidentally OVER-reported my income (by less than $5 - which would only have resulted in me receiving slightly less than I was entitled for that fortnight).
Having convinced myseld that I do not owe anything, I have lodged a review of the decision including payslips, bank statements and a detailed comparison of my earnings vs my reported earnings, but as yet have heard nothing about its progress.
I am currently studying for my PhD, and the time and stress that has been wasted on this is ridiculous - I can't even imagine how scary this would be for anyone dealing with any sickness, disability, or even a parent trying to raise a child!
The system used to find these "debts" is clearly faulty in the first place, and the burden this places on those that supposedly owe money is ridiculous. Trying to navigate the Centrelink system is difficult - with conflicting information given just by ONE Centrelink employee, let alone the mismatches in information between different employees and the MyGov/Centrelink website. Honestly my heart goes out to anyone trying to deal with this who has any disability etc, as it's been stressful and taxing enough for me.