I am lucky enough to be in the position that I knew there was absolutely no chance this debt was correct and had contacts who could supply me with my payslips. Hence, it hasn't affected me too much emotionally from that standpoint.
However, the entire process of correcting this debt (currently been reduced to $350 but I am still fighting to have it removed entirely) has taken roughly 20 hours of my time over the past few weeks collecting pay slips and discussing with countless individuals.
I really feel for others that are in the same position as me but do not have their payslips easily accessible. However, if you're unsure of whether to contest it, I highly recommend that you do! Do not give in to this ridiculous system.
Shocked? Appalled? Disgusted?
I completely understand that the government wants to recover payments that were truthfully incorrectly paid out to individuals. However, if recovering debt is so important that they approved a system that could cause so much emotional and financial stress, knowing that it was incorrectly being directed towards thousands of innocent individuals, then I'm not sure why I should support it.
#notmydebt