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Debt cleared.

Debt amount: 
$3000
Date debt issued: 
Wednesday, 5 October 2016
Period debt occurred: 
December 2010 to May 2011
Has your case been referred to a collection agency?: 
No
Payment Type: 
Newstart Allowance
Appealing Debt?: 
Yes & I won
Tell us about your debt and how has this affected you? e.g. anxiety levels, financial and accommodation stress: 

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.

I couldn’t get payslips from 6 years ago when this all happened.
So far the only explanation was “you earned this much so you owe us this much”.

Eventually I made one last desperate phone call demanding they send me the details of how the debt was calculated and that my lawyer will be in touch.
A few hours later I got a phone call from someone at centrelink with an apology.
Debt cleared.

How do you feel about the way the Government has handled this process?: 

Ruined my Christmas break!
All they said was to start a payment plan and once it was reviewed then I would get my money back!
Yeah as if they would look into it if I'm paying them money!
Its pure extortion. Should be a royal commission!