This seems to be a common problem for people who've done contract, casual or intermittent work in years they have received Newstart or Youth Allowance.
The government is crowing about its new automated system tracking down money incorrectly paid to welfare recipients, but Crikey is aware of multiple cases of people who have been unfairly and incorrectly targeted under the system.
"I'm not aware of individuals who are completely convinced that they don't owe money but have been given a debt notice." -- Human Services Minister Alan Tudge
Despite being unaware of that happening, Tudge is now enforcing changes to ensure that it stops, with the Centrelink process being adjusted so that debts will not be transferred to debt recovery agencies until after the client is aware of the supposed debt.
A young Victorian man forced to take out a bank loan to pay back a Centrelink debt claims the welfare agency never actually told him about his debt and the first he heard was from a debt collector.
The Coalition government is going to target more than 3 million of elderly and disabled Australians with its controversial Centrelink "robo-debt" campaign, Parliamentary documents show.
The mid-year economic forecast tables published last week shows the government has booked savings of $1.1 billion from data-matching the aged pension and another $400 million from the disability support pension.
The Federal Government will introduce changes to Centrelink's controversial debt recovery program, despite insisting it is working and dismissing calls for its suspension.
Human Services minister Alan Tudge has ordered the department to make some minor changes to improve the process.
Centrelink recipients across the region are being told to pay back false debts sometimes amounting to thousands of dollars because of a faulty computer algorithm.
The Federal Government and Centrelink have come under heavy criticism from all quarters over the automated system that has been used to match welfare recipients' reported income.
Amid all the anger the government agency began using Twitter to refer welfare recipients to crisis support hotline Lifeline as the hashtag #notmydebt began trending on the social media platform.
Internal records show how Centrelink’s flawed debt recovery system is sending letters to old addresses, getting earnings figures wildly wrong, duplicating employers and inaccurately averaging out yearly income.
The current attacks upon past and present pension payment recipients by Centrelink and the Minister for Social Services are “wrong at so many legal levels that it’s hard to know where to begin,”, ALHR President Benedict Coyne said.
The number of letters sent out under Centrelink's controversial robo-debt policy has soared past 230,000 as the federal appeals tribunal braces for a flood of disputes.
Treasury costings have put the price of Centrelink's data-matching and debt recovery at least $93 million, including payments to commercial debt collectors.
