You should lodge a dispute or get legal advice if you think your debt is in error.
This debt has severely affected my mental health.
I suffer from terrible anxiety and I constantly fear that my life is ruined because of this. I cannot afford to pay back such a large amount of money quickly.
I had to report every 2 weeks , which I did with my pay slip, always, but they say there was an error
My stress levels went through the roof because I knew that I had done the right thing, and they gave me only 28 days to prove my case.
I think my previous employer stuffed up the income statement. It stated $4,189 more income than I actually got in that period. Huge company, idiots.
Luckily all my pays went into one bank account and I got the printouts to prove my case.
After submitting a ton of documents, I never heard anything from Centrelink again.
No confirmation, no phone-call, nothing.
I've been through this twice now. Both times it was obvious to me where the mistake lay in their algorithms and I was able to explain it. But I was told I had to prove it anyway.
Both debts were 100% waived but after a painstaking wait.
Receiving a debt notice of 6.5k has almost destroyed me. I question if life is worth living, because I don't know how I'm ever suppose to get by and pay this off.
Countless tears, breakdowns, anxiety. I feel as though I have no support, and that the Government will win this.
I had it appealed and told that they reduced it by $400, during this time they went a head and garnished my $2,000 tax refund on which I was relying to register my car.
I felt very stressed, it affected my everyday life!
I couldn’t think straight, I couldn’t sleep. It affected my work where I have to be alert. I felt like I was a criminal when I did nothing wrong.
I contacted Centrelink and got some really rude and unhelpful people.
I was put on hold for half an hour because I wouldn’t agree and wouldn’t give the woman from Centrelink the answer she was trained to get !!
After many conversations with rude Centrelink staff made me extremely angry so I am fighting it.
I have made so many complaints about this, and I am seriously considering ending my own life as a result of this, not just because of the debt, but how Centrelink have handed this
Am utterly broken. Two disabled kids whose therapy I already can't afford. I'm immune supressed with bacterial infection in my tooth that could kill me, and I can't afford to get it removed. My car needs repairs.
I didn't even EARN $19,000 a year, so how on earth am I going to pay $19,000 back by the next month?
This is on top of the $12,000 debt I already have because they did not code a scholarship letter correctly.
It makes me want to just give up.
So much frustration and anxiety.
I am lucky that mine was dealt with (mostly) in a short period of time but that is only due to my persistence.
It was keeping me up at night, making me wait around, constantly retelling the same story with no outcome.
I'm a Masters student living in Melbourne only just surviving on the money I earn to buy everything. I received a letter from Centrelink last month saying that I owed $3700 from 2 years ago.
I couldn't believe that I owed that much, especially when it was saying that I owed money from my sickness allowance.
It might just be me but I think it would have been very difficult for me to work whilst I had a broken ankle and couldn't walk for 3 months.
Huge anxiety single parent with two children one with a disability, contacted Local member of parliament was given telephone number of local Manager of Centrelink, very polite, but still said pay your debt or else...
For those 4 years I did my tax returns dilligently with Tax experts and also paid tax on parenting payment single.
I was told can only amend my tax return for the last two years, so now have to pay Centrelink debt from over 4 years ago, and cannot even claim back the tax I paid on this parenting payment single.
Not sleeping ,,,, anxiety ,,, worrying as haven’t been on Newstart for 3 years !!!!!
I worked in mental health since 2006. I live with Bipolar, PTSD and Dissassociative disorder. In 2011 I had to stop work as I was fighting a 12 month long depressive episode. I was actively suicidal and ended up hospitalised.
I fought my way back to recovery and returned in a limited capacity to the workforce, while still having the safety net of the DSP to fall back on.
It was a hard battle and I finally went back to work fulltime, again in mental health and was hopeful of staying well.
I received this debt more than a year after starting my current job after providing payslips on request after a call informing me I had a $400 "provisional debt".
I was ordered to pay over $14000 in June 2019 for debts from 2014-2015. I believe these figures are very incorrect.
The letters you receive do not give any information why and they just demand your hard working dollars that are already spent on taxes and HECS.
Anxious, and getting no help from the people I speak with at centrelink.
Worried I won't be able to afford to pay bills if they win
I found out I had a debt straight from the debt collector.
At first I thought it was a scam but then found out I had been getting letters from Centrelink to my very old address.
I can’t sleep from the stress and don’t have time to be waiting in Centrelink or on the phone (nobody answers half the time).
I work so hard as a teacher and $1800 is my entire payslip and a month's rent.
I did everything right when claiming from Centrelink two years ago and I told them whenever my circumstances changed. They stuffed up.
Original debt was $5,000 — I became physically sick for a few days, later my psychiatrist had to increase my antidepressants, which was triggered by this one letter.
I applied for reassessment, paid $60 for printing and copying all the info that they wanted, they phoned me saying "I've got great news!!" — my debt had been halved.
I said that even if I'd received a letter for $2,500 debt I would have asked for reassessment because I don't believe that I under-reported and because it's sooo much money!!
As a single parent of 3, it’s hard enough to survive from fortnight to fortnight in a low paying industry, let alone receiving a massive debt from Centrelink that dates back to 2011.
I have suffered depression and anxiety since I was 18 yrs old, I am now 49 and the added pressure of this debt is slowly killing me.
The letters, the phone calls I receive about a debt that I have apparently incurred since 2011 to 2017?!
I already suffer from depression and anxiety, and am on medication for both, but today I was told by the Commonwealth ombudsmen that there is nothing they can do, despite admitting that it was clearly a structural issue.
I worked hard for the money I earned, I have even told Centrelink that there is a mistake in their calculations (multiple times) and now they are threatening to take what little tax return I will get this year because I did some work.