I received a debt letter in 2016 and have been fighting it ever since.
When I submitted payslips in 2017 I heard nothing back until recently (2019) when I requested a review of the 9k I supposedly owed.
I lost the review and they increased the amount to 11k and took my tax return.
I then took it the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.
Centrelink were forced to release all their documents to me.
These documents were filled with errors, were inconsistent, had the wrong business name of one of my employers, dates were wrong, amounts wrong.
Due to the fact that these documents could not provide accurate information at all, I won the tribunal and the whole debt was completely scrapped.
The whole debacle with Centrelink was a nightmare but I kept fighting and eventually won.
It is anxiety inducing, unbelievably stressful, and intimidating dealing with this but please don't give up and keep fighting this as much as you can. It is nothing short of extortion.
I have lost all faith in the government over this. The way it has been handled is a complete joke and they should be ashamed of themselves for this appalling witchhunt targeting vunerable people.