Debt amount:
$14578
Date debt issued:
Sunday, 4 September 2016
Period debt occurred:
February 2010 to November 2014
Payment Type:
Youth 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:
A huge amount of stress, I have had to take sick leave from work because of it. Financially, the debt collectors threatened to recover my wages in full if I didn't pay a large part of the sat up front, so I placed $500 on my credit card upfront, and was forced to set up a payment plan of $140/week. I am currently doing postgraduate studies, and so not working full time, so this causes a huge amount of stress.
How do you feel about the way the Government has handled this process?:
It is barbaric. They have access to payslips and reporting data, yet for some reason they have decided that they are too lazy to access that, and so are just dividing income by 52 weeks, which is completely opposite to the income bank and reporting I did so honestly when receiving youth allowance.