The original letter asking me to confirm my income for the 2010/11 tax year was sent to my old address. I only received that letter because I happened to go to that address for some classes at the end of October.
I went to my online portal and confirmed the income and a debt was raised. For me it was immediately clear that they had averaged out my income for that year over the whole year rather than for the weeks I worked :(
In 2010 I started a regular casual job in November and went off centreline payments at the end of March 2011 and haven't needed to return to the system since then), how ever there was no way on the site to question this.
I waited for the debt letter which arrived on the 17th of November. It said i could go to my online portal to see the details of this design or to provide more information. The only time my portal has been operational is when I conformed my income, since then nothing on it has been active.
The only number to ring on the notice was the feedback line....so i stated there!
I got through to someone and found out i needed to prove my weekly income for that period.
I rung my accountant who said they are telling people to only keep records up to the 11/12 tax year so is it event legal to be being asked for income proof for the 10/11 year??
anyway luckily i was working for a council (and still are) and they still had the records. Another company i also worked for don't keep detailed records that long but that wasn't the income centreline was querying ...
Back to the phones (and another morning gone... luckily I'm not full-time employed so i can take a morning or 2 off to do this... although on the days I'm not at my waged job i am operating a small business...who can i invoice for my time??)
and after several long conversations, i was able to give them more information and the debt has been reduced from $1905 to $907, however this is still wrong. I need to get on that phone again and query it again but as yet haven't had the time or the head space to do so. This morning i am writing this story rather than getting back on the phone. I am overwhelmed by the scale of this and feel intimated by the amount of time and energy i need to continue to get my dept reviewed, however i also don't want to be one of the numbers they use to prove that there are welfare cheats out there when am not one.
I have started paying it back as i was told it would go to a debt collector if i didn't. I have been told this on a number of occasions.
Compared to other stories I feel like my situation is mild, but I get really angry when I hear the politicians saying the system is working and how it works as it just dosen't and isn't working that way.
The staff I have dealt with have been fabulous and i feel sorry for them bearing the brunt of this. I got really emotional in my phone calls, its so frustrating being told you have a debt and being threatened with debt collectors for a situation you are not in the wrong and knowing that the system is over burdened and dysfunctional so you are unlikely to been fairly heard.
It feels like a witch hunt, it feels like they want to prove that welfare repents are all bludgers and rorting the system, where as in fact we are all just trying to survive. I thought I had left centreline behind me, its been really confronting to have to be dealing with this department again and i am an educated healthy person, I really feel for those who are struggling with language or health or family issues, this must be totally overwhelming for them.