$5000 to $2500

Debt amount:

$5000

Date debt issued:

Thursday, 24 August 2017

Period debt occurred:

August 2012

Has your case been referred to a collection agency?:

Yes

Payment Type:

Austudy

Appealing Debt?:

Yes & I won

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

Received a debt in 2017 of over $5000, from 2011-2013! And even though they had my reporting data they still averaged my income out from ATO over the years. (I worked uni holidays on a station and didn’t even get Centrelink payments during holidays).

It took three very long phone calls to even get someone to explain why and how it had been calculated. Then over twelve months and hours of calls (where I recalculated for them from my payslips for the year) I got it down to $2500. They should be paying me for the hours I did for them.

Ran out of time and patience so have been paying off remaining amount. Extremely stressful having that hanging over your head during drought and work being scarce at the moment.

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

Absolutely appalling, can’t even get payments now I’ve returned to uni a number of years later (due to drought and lack of work so using this time to upskill).