Centrelink’s ongoing debt drama is shaping up to remain a troublesome issue as politicians return from holiday and Parliament resumes in February.
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The letters – which are poorly targeted and have gone to thousands of people who did nothing wrong – warn a debt may be raised if the recipient does not provide the information in question. That may require finding payslips from employment periods four or five years ago.
Peter Horbury, from Social Security Rights Victoria, says the issue is merely bubbling along now, as people try to deal with Centrelink. But after a certain number of weeks have elapsed, the debts can be passed to debt collectors.
“If you think there’s a fuss now wait ’til the debt collectors go out,” Mr Horbury told The New Daily.
“We’ve really only had people start to contact us since that start of December … then we reckon it will be by February that the big debt collection will really start hitting.”
That could coincide with the first sitting of Parliament on February 7 and make the issue very visible for a government keen to get a fresh start to the year.