My payments decreased so I carried on

Debt amount:

$10000

Date debt issued:

Thursday, 17 November 2016

Period debt occurred:

July 2013 to June 2016

Has your case been referred to a collection agency?:

Payment Type:

Family Tax Benefit

Appealing Debt?:

Yes in process

Tell us about your debt and how has this affected you? e.g. anxiety levels, financial and accommodation stress:

Received letter from Centrelink stating I owed $10000.00 on 17/11/16 and that I had to pay it by the 16th Dec 16.
I then contacted them to find out what it was all about. It took many phone calls to get through only to be put on hold for 70 mins. My debt is to do with FTB. I changed my % of care with Child Support who assured me that they would contact Centerlink and that I did not need to do anymore. My payments decreased so I carried on. Now they are saying that they put the wrong % of care into system and want me to pay back. I have checked all my bank statements and money has been received. I want them to acknowledge their mistake as I did everything by the book. My dispute is they have to take responsibility and wipe out debt. Have not heard a thing since 28th Nov until I managed to get through today. Only to be told my case is noted as a dispute but nobody has been given the case to handle yet. Could not get them to commit to a time frame, so this may go on for years.

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

They have not handled it at all.