I recieved the initial letter at the start of December 2016. The letter informed me there was a discrepancy between my income declared to Centrelink and the income that the ATO had supplied Centrelink with for the same financial year.
Cue anxiety levels through the roof.
My position as a sole parent has meant that I rely, particularly at Christmas time, on and advance to ensure that my child and I make it through the xmas period.
Now, when Centrelink *thinks* you have a debt to them, or even a 'pending' debt, as they like to call it, it means that you are unable to apply for an advance in your payment.
So I had recieved a letter saying descrepancy, however for the purposes of the MyGov website and its functions, this was a 'debt'.
Leaving me unable to access my advance payment.
I made the necessary phone calls, and was kept on hold for a total of 2 hours and 23 minutes.
After speaking initially to a person about my options, which they suggested setting up a payment plan — bear in mind at this point it was the first phone call and no monetary amount had been mentioned owing — I declined to do this and was transferred to the compliance department. They said they would look into it and would call me back.
Amazingly, the next day they did. What happened was, you guessed it, any income they had provided by the ATO was spread across the whole financial year, not for the actual time I was working. So this created a discrepancy — created by Centrelink themselves applying an average over my payment weeks.
Also, I was informed in a second phone call that an employer had been listed twice.
I was told to log in to MyGov compliance to remove the double up.
I could not, as on my own MyGov screen, it was only listed once. Centrelink were telling me they could see it twice.
Another phone call explaining this, the service officer in compliance was able to rectify this.
Fortunately for me, even after pointing out that not only was this unfair, but completely wrong to do this, the "average'" was so minuscule that it did not create a debt.
However, it took two weeks, several more phone calls, to finally be resolved.
Only after it was resolved, was I able to apply for my advance to help me through the Xmas period.
What it came down to — the system still considered a "debt" to be pending despite this not being the case at all.
Luckily it was resolved over a few weeks.
I'm wondering how many others with reviews pending or false debts being paid off, are unable to access much needed advances in times of crisis or hardship.
The system programming is seriously flawed.
It is meant for support in times of hardship but is creating its own brakes on a faulty program.
Perhaps Centrelink realise this and think of it as a money saving excercise, as the less people that can claim and advance, the better????
Maybe it belongs in the Alternate Facts pile.
Absolutely terrible.
A simple check of the dates where income was declared and a simple addition of tax office income would have prevented this.
Fortunately I am pretty switched on when it comes to paperwork and records, but like most people keeping records from 5/6 years ago.... no.
A few employers have even shut down since then.
I have seen two other cases of people that I know who have not been able to access their pay slips and have ended up paying a debt that they are sure they dont owe, but its too hard to prove it, as well as being not computer literate.
They cannot afford to take time off work, or if they have a mental illness or disability, they would need to enlist the services of an advocate for them — and go through the whole process which the advocate would need to throughly understand their situation.
Frustrating at best, and a sickening display of authority abusing disadvantaged people at worst with little regard for the lives of people affected.