Had temporary work in 2011. When this work finished, I contacted CL as my husband & I were under severe financial pressure. He had been on sick benefits for some time due to a medical condition that they could not identify. I was concerned for the health of my family. My husband & I both went to Centrelink and provided all documentation to the officer to establish the claim. He refused to put me on unemployment because I had a daughter under 6, instead put me on parenting payment.
5 years later I get a letter on a Friday afternoon asking if my tax return was correct, and if so I owed them money. Need less to say my anxiety and blood pressure went straight through the roof. I called the compliance team on Monday morning and they told me to get my employment separation cert and payroll records from that year. When I called back in the afternoon (still stressing) I was told that I now owed $1600 to which I laughed. I had only received 2 payments from CL before I found work. I made a request under FOI and that took nearly 2 months to come through. The employment separation cert which they claimed I never sent was returned to me date stamped by CL under FOI. Apparently, I was not entitled to the first payment that they gave me.
Additionally I had not worked for a fortnight as it was school holidays and the after school care provider that I was then working for did not require me. Centrelink had averaged my salary and applied 2 weeks wages that was why my debt went up. I sat down and did the reconciliation from the payroll records and centrelink advice myself. I had in fact over declared to them by some $3000 dollars, This was due to the fact that my payroll week did not coincide with the reporting weeks. When I called again, my debt was again reviewed and came down to $400. When I said I wanted in reviewed by a review officer it then came down to $376.
I became aware of a debt that had been raised in my name, even though I had applied for an appeal. When I called, I was told that if I did not make arrangements to pay it off or pay in full, then it would be handed over to debt collection. So while I awaited the appeal I commenced paying it fortnightly. we were ready under financial strain. but I was given no choice.
When the appeal was held, even the appeals officer struggled to work out what was going on. In the end he said he would request a report from CL and would get back to me. Well the get back to me ended up being a reason for decision with the final line being, as the debt had been repaid in full no further action was necessary. I phoned him and was told that I had the right to appeal his decision, but f I did CL would provide legal defense and if I lost I would be liable for their financial costs. So there was the end.
I am an ex- compliance officer for a State Govt department. If I had sent a letter out like they send out, I would have been fired instantly. It implies defrauding the Federal Government . It provides not one once of specific information other than a telephone number. Nobody seemed to want to get involved or put any serious work into it. I understand the principals of data matching with ATO, but they need to do some work as well. The income that I reported to them after I ceased to get benefits is of no business to them. Either was the documents that I received from the appeals people requesting information on my current financial situation ( which I refused to complete for them). This debt was about something that occurred 5 years ago not now! That to me was intimidation and a breach of privacy. My current financial situation has nothing to do with whether or not they made an error in the past. I have now been retrenched and I am doing everything possible to avoid having to make a claim. We will not get any financial assistance, I know that, but to be honest, I don't wont to get a bill from them again. I could not cope with it all. The anxiety, the sleepless nights and the blood pressure issues and the distress that it caused me family. And to anyone that thinks they immune from this let me tell you. Australian Tax Office requires personal income documents to be kept for a period of 5 years. CL has no statute of limitations. So that payment that you got 25 years ago can be reviewed whenever they want.
The Government is meant to work with the publics interest at the foremost. This is definitely not being displayed by them. I fully appreciate that there will always be people out trying to rip off the system, but your compliance people need to get out of their air conditioned offices and start doing what they are being paid to do by the people of Australia before they send out debt notices.
As you can see I am still angry about this 7 months after the date!!