I received a call today from a debt collection agency telling me I owed Centrelink $2.5k for wrongfully declaring my income when I was on Youth Allowance from 2010-2013 which is 100% not the case. I was always super vigilant when declaring my earnings so it has to be a mistake on their end or a mistake from the ATO.
Today was the first I had heard of my debt as they were sending notices to my old postal address. Could they not have called or sent an email? After all, Centrelink was more than happy to pass over my phone number to the debt collection office. I even asked my old housemates if they had received anything for me from Centrelink, which they hadn't.
I now need to track down every employer I had from 2010-2013 to get every single payslip I received during that period. Two of my employers during that time were big corporations so it will be a very arduous process to get three years worth of payslips from them.
I've been told I need to pay the debt now while my claim is being reviewed. So in short, I will be left out of pocket and unable to pay rent and buy groceries because of a failing on their end. Right now I'm refusing to pay anything until I have seen proper documentation from Centrelink explaining where they believe I went wrong (I am yet to see anything). Hopefully I will be able to hold out until my case has been fully reviewed but that may take months. In the meantime I'm going to have the debt collection agency calling me everyday chasing the money :(
I feel horrible. It's just a major fuck up on their end and now 1000s of people have been left to pick up the pieces. What sort of government is this? Not my government.