I found out about my debt via a text message from MyGov on the 13th of January 2017, telling me that I had a letter ready to view online.
I was at work.
I opened the letter and saw that I had a huge debt ($26,578.45 to be exact) owing to Centrelink and that the due date was the 8th of February 2017.
After having a panic attack, I logged into the Centrelink online system and tried to see if I could register a minimum payment plan immediately...
The minimum amount was $500 a week (potentially a fortnight).
At this point I was in hysterics.
I knew immediately that I could not afford this amount and survive (I have quite a bit of debt as it is and only just get by).
At this point, i was unconsolable at work, trying to find payslips or anything in my personal email or online Google drive, with no luck.
The debt from from 2011-2013... the managers had moved on and been replaced and weren't able to help.
Thankfully my current manager told me to take the day off to try to work out what was going on — I wasn't any use to her in the state I was in.
I spent the afternoon begging my previous employers for weekly wage reports from several years ago.
Most were sorry to hear about the situation... but only one was able to provide the paperwork needed.
I drove all over Brisbane trying to get this information.
The day after I received this letter, I was violently and sexually attacked and spent hours in hospital the day after getting tests and going over and over the situation that had occurred. So not only am I trying to cope with a surprise debt that is basically the same as a house deposit... I've also got psychological wounds that may never heal because of the attack.
Since receiving the debt notice and being attacked, I have made 2 attempts on my life, am not eating properly, nor am I sleeping properly without medication. These issues are caused by a combination of being attacked and the huge debt that I am now facing.
I currently have a car loan, a personal loan, two credit cards and a HECS debt totalling approximately $60,000. The car gets me to and from work, the personal loan and two credit cards ensured I was able to survive through two redundancies and the HECS debt meant that I could go to university whilst working part time. These debts I can budget for — barely. Adding in a new debt of such a high amount is causing a much greater level of anxiety than I would have, if I had only been attacked.
If the review comes back and I am still required to pay back the entire debt, I will not be able to meet their minimum payment required as I simply don't have money to spare in my budget. I know I will have to sell my car to pay back part of the debt, this will leave me without a feasible way to get to work because of where my office is located. If I am to resort to public transport, this will add 3 hours to my work day and up to $80 a fortnight on transport costs (this is an increase of approximately $60 a fortnight). Eventually, I will need to start selling other possessions, move home and leave my job. All putting me at a higher level of anxiety and depression, with a greater risk of harm to myself both physically and mentally. I foresee that I will likely end up unemployed because of the extreme drain caused by excessive travel times and will need to apply for Centrelink — who will see the debt when I apply and reduce my payments significantly — thus increasing my likelihood of increased anxiety, increased depression, decreased opportunity for work, increased opportunity for risk of homelessness.
Centrelink has placed a temporary waiver on my bill until May 15 2017, because of the violent attack I went through and my online plea to Twitter. In the mean time, i am trying to collate as much information as possible as well as book in time with a psychologist, financial adviser and a doctor to get supporting letters from them to assist with my review case — I am hoping to receive a special circumstances waiver, based on the fact that this debt is so detrimental to my health (both physical and mental) that the cost of repaying it will likely end in me taking my own life because of the increased anxiety and depression.
I am disgusted by the way that the Government has handled this process.
First, I didn't receive the initial letter asking for me to verify my income online. The first i heard of this issue, was when i received my bill.
Second, when I spend the day trying to question it, I was hung up on multiple times by several staff members once they heard that I had a debt.
They weren't interested.
Their entire behaviour and attitude turned frosty as soon as they saw the debt.
I wasn't rude, I didn't swear or yell. I was polite and amicable. Yet they continued to be rude, frosty and hang up on me.
Eventually, I was told that I had this debt because I had reported incorrectly between 2011 and 2013. I was told that they would send out the paperwork explaining how the department came to this total.
When I received the MultiCal paperwork, Entitlement Calculations paperwork, the Casual earning apportionment paperwork and the Summary of changes paperwork, I was overwhelmed by the amount of data I was supposed to understand.
There was no explanation accompanying this documentation like there normally is with Centrelink documentation and letters — I was expected to understand it all myself with no help from Centrelink.
I noticed that the data in the "Summary of Changes" and the "Casual earning apportionment" paperwork was either incomplete or inaccurate or both.
For example, the "Casual earning apportionment" paperwork seemed to list the amount earned based on an average amount earned each fortnight over the period of employment with each company, so that I was earning the same amount each fortnight I worked for each company — this is completely inaccurate — I was a casual worker, with no set hours who worked around University schedules — so this data is categorically incorrect and can now be proven as I have managed to get the HR departments to provide me with a weekly pay report.
Also, in this same paperwork, the Declared $ column is empty — there is no way for me to verify how much I declared during each entitlement period based on the paperwork provided.
Additionally, the summary of changes paperwork looks like it shows that I missed out on rent assistance during some portions of this time frame — but does not explain why.
Also — the last page of the original "Casual earning apportionment" paperwork had hand written notes regarding the totals declared for each employer, the total declared overall, the total earned and the total assessed income — but this information should have been provided properly in the table — so i could verify each entitlement period properly.
Once I realised that the paperwork was incorrect, I contacted the social worker that I had been assigned to ask for the correct and complete versions of the MultiCal paperwork, Entitlement Calculations paperwork, the Casual earning apportionment paperwork and the Summary of changes paperwork.
I was told that he would request for it to be sent to me.
5 days later, I received a duplicate of each of the previously mentioned paperworks with zero corrections and zero data added as requested.
The temporary waiver was only provided because a) I was violently, sexually attacked the day after receiving the bill and b) I was making too much noise and fuss on Twitter... and getting too much help from online helpers — rather than Centrelink itself.
By providing this temporary waiver, they were attempting to silence me and save face at the same time.
However, I am still being treated like I have defrauded the system and that I deserve no basic respect.
When I rang my social worker last to ask for an additional month on the temporary waiver because I have not been coping at all (less eating, less sleeping, increased anxiety and increased depression), I was told that they had already provided a temporary waiver and that I was lucky and should be grateful. That they wouldn't extend it again.
I explained that I'd been hurt at work and was now trying to deal with workcover on top of everything else and really was struggling... and he didn't care.
He fobbed me off. This was when I decided that I would be appealing this as far as I could.
This department is inhumane. They put a 4 month time frame on me healing enough psychologically from being raped, to be able to deal with a potentially bankrupting debt and then they expected me to thank them for it — without providing decent proof that the debt was even accurate.
I will likely need to withdraw most of my super fund to pay off this debt. That is beyond ridiculous.