You should lodge a dispute or get legal advice if you think your debt is in error.
I work in a seasonal job, full time but casual work for 9 months then 3 month seasonal winter break.
I was on the road when i got these emails and sms contacts stating that i owed $3500.
My job is a traveling job, so i live on the road in a bus traveling across australia.
After many of these harassing calls I signed it over to be dealt with by my partner.
I was notified of the debt after a call in September.
This debt was for my first year of university, but because I worked FT the previous year they had averaged my earnings.
I also worked for a public benevolent institution and receive allowances, so they were also calculating those back to April 2016.
I had only started receiving payments for centrelink in Feb 2017 but they were calculating off my wages way back in April 2016.
I've been on this journey since coming back from Europe last September with a alleged #RoboDebt of initially $3800.00 then reduced to $3600 and ordered to pay, with as you know, NO REASON OR EVIDENCE.
I was on sickness payments due to a broken hand and casual and obviously couldn't work, as such after a period, I gained work again. Dating back 2015 - 16.
The process has taken over 6 months i was under the impression it has been resolved and received a letter to say it had been recovered and the debt was due that week.
Now I have to wait another month for it to be appealed.
The stress and anxiety is overwhelming especially when your unemployed and a student.
And even more so that I never knowingly (if at all) did the wrong thing to cheat the system.
When I received the letter from Centrelink I was asked to report my income for 2011-2013.
I did exactly that and their system informed me that because what I had reported did not match their ATO data, I had to call Centrelink to discuss.
An ARO waited 7 months for me to send them documents to prove I do NOT owe this debt.
They then re-established the debt and started taking $128 out of my pension.
I have Chronic PTSD and having this hanging over my head has been a relentless nightmare.
I am about to start a medication which is not on the PBS and will require approximately $300 per month.
This reduction in funds may exclude me from this medication.
5 hours spent on the phone over 10 separate calls with centrelink trying to fix this, 3 visits to centrelink, 3 days unpaid off work trying to resolve.
Been told 3 times by centrelink that it was being reassesssed... for nothing to come except a letter from debt collector saying we had an outstanding debt with centrelink.
Currently being reassessed for the 4th time with the next step being referral to the AAT.
I was shocked as I made sure I provided accurate records.
I am very stressed and angry.
In April 2018 I received a letter from centrelink stating that I owe $7,189.00 plus a 10% recovery fee for an apparent overpayment during 2010 - 2014.
I was completely shocked and scared by this letter. How had this happened?
After calling centrelink I was told that based on my tax returns over the years it can be seen that I earned more than I reported and therefore had been overpaid.
They claim I must have worked while getting Sickness Benfits. (I was off because of a ruptured and Septic Apendix.)
Neither the Hospital, Doctors or Work would allow me to work with an open wound in Stomach!
It was extremely stressful and they automatically took money out of my fortnightly payment twice with no warning.
I spent hours upon hours chasing the debt up.
I had it reviewed twice before it was sent off to the third party review officer who was the only person who actually listened to me.
The debt was finally then reduced to $60 after 1.5 years of waiting, phone calls and terrible communication.
None off the Centrelink staff knew the correct information and all told me different stories.
Loss of sleep, loss of appetite and memory mental capacity due to stress.
Depression!!! Thoughts of, how do I get out of this when even the proof is not good enough!
Added stress for the children due to me not being truly "present" due again to stress and time spent on hold and being passed from person to person at Centrelink.
It's all I think about, makes me physically sick!
I received a letter from centrelink asking me to confirm that I had earned $30,000 for the year.
I had earned that money in 9 of the 12 months of the year, requiring Newstart support for the 3 months I was unemployed.
The system averaged out my annual income and accused me of earning money during the 3 months that I wasn’t working.
I spent my entire Christmas break phoning centrelink, emailing Hank Jongen, Christian Porter, Alan Tudge and all the other crooked polititians boasting what a wonderful job at reclaiming debts they were doing.
The debt was the result of my income (from sporadic casual work) being averaged out over the entire year.
Even after I provided proof of this, I still have the debt and am currently having my Austudy payments garnished for it.
This whole experience has left me extremely stressed.
I am currently considering dropping out of my university course to find a part-time job to pay it off, as my garnished payments are not enough to live on.
I actually laughed when it first came.
It was around the time of the half billion dollar grant to an organisation that didn't ask for it and a time when politicians were under all sorts of scrutiny for the dodgy use of taxpayers' money.
I couldn't believe that they were serious in pursuing me for a debt that didn't exist.
I probably made a mistake in ignoring it.
Due to incorrect address recorded, did not even know this occured.
ATO garnished my tax return to pay this false "debt".
Took approx 3 months to get it back.
Had to provide employment records due the entire year as well as bank statements and statements from the employment agencies.
I have to repay part of my payment to Centrelink every fortnight because they won’t let me appeal it further.
I also now live alone so the financial stress is greater.
My parents handed me a letter in November 2018 they had received at their home that stated Centrelink had unsuccessfully tried to contact me at my own home address to have me re-report my income for a 12 month period from 4 years ago.
The letter stated I had not gotten back to them in time I had lost the chance to re-report and I now owed Centrelink $9069!
This debt amount is $300 MORE than I received from Centrelink Youth Allowance in the first place.
To breaking point. Constant stress day and night. Concern about how we can afford to live
I received an initial letter requesting employment confirmation back in 2015.
I attempted to fill out the online forms and dates for the last three years and of course it was all wrong.
Contacted the compliance team and was told to provide all my payslips and statements for the 2013 - 2016 period which I did.
At this stage I was not given an amount in writing about how much I owed and when I questioned this with the compliance officer(person), she told me it could be 20,000.00 and since I did not always receive Newstart they would take it out of FTB.