I'm a 35 year old single female who suffers from an anxiety disorder living in Sydney away from my family in Adelaide.
until I was diagnosed about three years ago I worked full time but after a suicide attempt I was unable to continue to do so. I took a month off on a doctors certificate and received centre link full time for that period
After I was feeling better my psychologist advised I should get a part time job which was the most I could handle. I found one with a great employer who has been very understanding about my situation.
At the beginning my working hours fluctuated a lot and I still needed to receive at least some centre link to be able to have a Saftey net when I got sick or if I didn't get many hours that fortnight Sydney is not a cheap place to live but it has plenty of retail jobs which is all I am qualified to work.
As I wish to one day to be self sufficient I started a small online business making and selling my jewellery at the end of last year. It was starting to have some success in December.
I have financed the project from my own income and the business still needs work. As you know businesses don't usually make a profit in the first year and I will still need to finance it from my income for a little while yet
When the debt checking system spat out a debt of $1500 I knew it was incorrect because of the averaging and asked for a review supplying pay slips for the financial year in question. The review came back that the debt was incorrect by $250 and they sent me their workings.
When I looked at the first date of the workings table I noticed that the first date was 24th of June 2014 and last date was 22nd of June 2015. Dates that don't match the period my end of year summary would be for? Also I sat down with an actual roster of the first fortnight and worked out I earned $1006.80 for that fortnight. In the spread sheets actual earnings column that centre link had filled out it said I had earned $1240 it didn't even say that on the first payslip that covered the first half of the fortnight so I have no idea how centre link came to the conclusion I earned that much?
I will admit that I did report incorrectly on a couple of occasions not intentionally but because I didn't calculate the fortnights pay correctly. A fortnight I have to calculate prior to actually being paid or having a pay slip to refer to. I am more than happy to pay back what I actually owe because I believe in doing the right thing.
I'm stuck paying $70 a fortnight back on a debt for the next year and a half for which the calculations seem suspicious.
So that I can survive I will now have to close down my small business in order to do so. The small business helped me to deal with my anxiety and gave me hope for my future and independence from centre link.
The brick walls I face when trying to get the correct details recognised is also causing me to have anxiety attacks again and it is effecting my work at my part time job as well. I'm in fear that I'm going to lose that also.
My message to the government and centre link is thank you very much now I'll have to be on centre link just to pay you back a debt that isn't all my fault and I will probably never get off it because I can't work full time.Also I may have had to employ some one in the future possible jobs lost by faudenrly charming me a higher amount than what I owe.
i think the debt itself isn't what I'm upset about but that the government is lying and cheating the poorest people in the country. Making it seem like there is no place in Australia for people to get ahead unless they have come from a privaleged back ground. My Grandfather didn't move from a communist country to give his family this kind of Orwellian government.