I feel like my debt is a small amount in comparison to some others I have heard about, but as a casual retail worker, I don't exactly have a steady income of money. This fact alone has had me in tears on multiple occassions. I'm struggling as it is, trying to recover from Christmas and pay my bills for January, so to be told I apparently owe $683.64 is beyond baffling and stressful.
I recieved my first letter last year, 2016, stating that I had declared a different amount to the ATO. This is about the ONLY thing Centrelink has gotten right. I DID declare a different amount to the ATO as I wasn't receiving payments from Centrelink for the entire financial year. So I hopped online and confirmed my income and thought that was it. Next letter stated that everything was updated and nothing has changed to my entitlements (which I didnt have as I hadn't been with Centrelink for nearly 3 years). I foolishly thought that that was the end of it. Third and final letter, PAY US MONEY. I was sos confused wondering how on earth they figured I owed them money?
I rang Compliance and spoke to probably the most helpful person I've ever encountered at Centrelink and within 30 seconds of varifying who I was and opening my file, this gentlemen could pinpoint EXACTLY what was wrong. It took a human 30 seconds to find the problem that a computer system has created. One of my income reports from that period stated $800, which is correct. HOWEVER, the oh-so-genious computer system could not recognise that it was a fortnightly payment, which means I actually only earnt $400 for a single week. It also couldn't recognise that I was a casual worker and therefore my hours and pay varried from week to week. So this corrupt computer system decided that I earnt $800 every week! Don't get me wrong, I would LOVE to earn that much money weekly, but I don't. I never have.
I was then advised by this wonderful gentlemen to upload my payslips from that period to my MyGov account and then ring Debt Recovery and they will set up a re-assessment for me. Great, I thought! So I log into my account only to discover I can't upload anything. Why? Back on the phone I get. Apparently because I haven't made a claim in so many years, my access is restricted. What next? I now have to physically go back in to the Centrelink office with photo ID, so someone can verify and upgrade my access for me. I get that sorted (I don't really have any choice) and then FINALLY I can upload my payslips. Give Debt Recovery a call back and they pass me off to compliance yet again *sigh*. The lady I spoke to was able to open my file, view the documents at last and has finally referred me to another department that will go over my proof of payments manually. I am expected to have a response in roughly 10 days, from today. Unfortunately I still have to pay the $683.64 this week and await a reimbursement after the assessment is done. Why not just waive the bloody debt seeing as it's corrupt and fake anyway? I'm guessing that's too logical for Centrelink.
Disgusted. The Australian Government should hang their heads in shame. I'm guessing they would have been more than happy to bury their heads in the sand and hope it blows over, unfortunately for them, we have this amazing platform called social media. So to everyone out there who has been given these letters? Make noise! Don't stay quiet. Keep sharing articles and other peoples struggles and stories. Post and share everything! Stick it to our embarrasing excuse for a Government and stick it to the incompetence of Centrelink!