I got this letter saying that I owe Centerlink money because they overpaid me for the above period. I was receiving Austudy for 12 months while finishing my honours degree and I told Centerlink that would be working when I initially filled out the online form. When I logged in to enter my pay details for the first fortnight there was nowhere on the form for me to enter my wage for that period and, in fact, there was a note stating that I was not required to enter pay details.
After receiving the letter, I rang Centerlink and basically got told that, yes they did have a box ticked on my details that I did not tick and must have been done by a Centerlink staff member by accident when the information from my application was transferred but they claimed that I should have known I was being paid too much and I should have rang them about it.
I had little to no idea how much Centerlink was paying me. I didn't keep a close eye on all the incoming sand outgoings of my account as I was wasn't working a set number of hours per fortnight and I had direct debits set up on my account.
I am not sure if it is too late to dispute it now I am paying back. I feel that because they made a clerical error (which the woman on the phone admitted when I talked to her) I feel it is not fair to make me pay the whole thing back. I agree that some of the fault lies with me and am happy to pay some of it back but this would not have happened if they did not make that clerical error in the first place.
I am no longer on any benefits from Centerlink and haven't been science 2012. I was basically living from payday to payday when I received this letter and now this debt has added extra strain to my budget. The car that I need to get to work everyday is overdue for service because I cannot afford to get it serviced right now and I am very concerned that something may go wrong with it if I can't get the money to do it soon.
Poorly. I can't understand why their system is set up so that it took 3 + years to notify me of the debt. I could have paid it off quicker and easier if I had known at the end of that financial year. Centerlink has not shown any leniency given that it was their fault that they overpaid me in the first place.