I received a debt covering the 2013-2015 period I was working casual contracts (thats all i could get at the time!) and I was unemployed in between. Centrelink averaged these payments over the entire financial coal years to make it look like I was claiming Newstart while earning money. I haven't had time to repeal it since I am exhausted and due to give birth at the end of Jan 2017 (one month after receiving the debt letter). I was working 40 hours a week until recently and just moved house because I will not be able to afford the rent after the baby is born. It is ludicrous that I need to chase down casual payslips from multiple employers years ago to erase a fictional debt at a time where I need to focus on caring for my first child!
The government is supporting this "debt recovery" system because poor people are easy to serve as scapegoats and abuse. They know it is unfair and patently fraudulent but it's a good distraction from all the other nasty bits of legislation they are passing that benefit themselves and their multinational pals.