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Very big shock to receive letter notifying debt owed just 3 days before Christmas

Debt amount: 
$703
Date debt issued: 
Thursday, 22 December 2016
Period debt occurred: 
January 2012 to June 2012
Payment Type: 
Youth Allowance
Appealing Debt?: 
No
Tell us about your debt and how has this affected you? e.g. anxiety levels, financial and accommodation stress: 

Was a very big shock to receive letter notifying debt owed just 3 days before Christmas. With a young daughter this added heaps of unnecessary financial stress and I questioned whether we could even afford to celebrate Christmas at all.

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

The government has handled this problem awfully, from the notifying letter which was extremely unclear, making me believe that the whole debt had to be payed on/before January 12th, 2017, giving me 3 weeks to come up with $700 or the "authorities" would be after me. The letter came across as very threatening, I called Centrelink immediately and the people I spoke to we're very helpful, but believe that the efforts I would have to go to to dig up payslips from 2012 wouldn't be worth the small amount (compared to most) I owed.