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almost got evicted

Debt amount: 
$5353
Date debt issued: 
Wednesday, 12 October 2016
Period debt occurred: 
November 2016 to January 2017
Has your case been referred to a collection agency?: 
Yes
Payment Type: 
Newstart Allowance
Appealing Debt?: 
Yes in process
Tell us about your debt and how has this affected you? e.g. anxiety levels, financial and accommodation stress: 

I almost got evicted from my rental property. My rent a fortnight is $600 and my Centrelink payments (I am currently off work due to a work related injury however my payments from Workcover have ceased) are $653 a fortnight. They automatically started deducting $80 from my payments so I did not have enough money to pay my rent. I contacted them and the lady I spoke to lowered my repayments back to $15 a fortnight leaving me with $30 to pay my car repayment, my groceries, my electricity, gas and other bills. To say this is a stressful time is an understatement, receiving the extra $15 a fortnight doesn't cover all my bills but it certainly helps make a contribution. I'm so ridiculously stressed about this debt because there is no way I can afford it and I definitely don't owe this amount of money they are saying I do. All because I was working two jobs at the time! The period they are saying I owe for I was only on payments for two months, how can I grt an overpayment of over $5000 for a period of two months?! Makes absolutely no sense to me and I most certainly didn't get this money back in 2013

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

It's attrociaous. I am appalled and disgusted. It's not fair. I agree they should crack down on people who abuse the system but for those of us who actually do the right thing it's just unfair. I've had this debt for a few months now and everyone I have contacted can't seem to do anything about it and I don't have hours and hours during my day to sit on the phone on hold!