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Single parent payment

Debt amount: 
$14100
Date debt issued: 
Wednesday, 22 May 2019
Period debt occurred: 
July 2013 to February 2018
Has your case been referred to a collection agency?: 
No
Payment Type: 
Parenting Payment
Appealing Debt?: 
Yes in process
Tell us about your debt and how has this affected you? e.g. anxiety levels, financial and accommodation stress: 

Stress levels through the roof - about to undergo heart surgery, will likely lose my job and will now be unable to claim anything, can't do my tax return which I was counting on, hardly sleep at night anymore and will most likely get even more sick now as my heart condition is directly stress-related.

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

Feel completely degraded and de-humanised - they can request for us to pay within a month but when you lodge an appeal there is "no time frame on it", like our lives don't depend on it!! We are counting every single dollar, exhausting ourselves at work to barely make ends meet and this just makes us feel like we're not worth living. It is a disgrace! Not sure I will have the energy to fight this one through... so what will happen now? my daughter will inherit this debt? As if I didn't have enough to worry about already! I am disgusted, not to mention the ridiculous comments made in the press about us "having to work more" or to "declare our earnings regularly". What the hell does he think we are doing already?!