Sickness benefits

I received a letter last year stating I owed 9200 from sickness benefits I received for 9 months during the year of 2011. I couldn't believe what I was seeing, such a large amount of money that I knew was entirely wrong. First thing that crossed my mind was how on earth was I going to pay this. Especially currently on maternity leave, my anxiety levels went through the roof!!!!

I was living in Perth at the time (2011) when I got sick and was on leave without pay but eventually moved back to Sydney where I resigned and applied for sickness benefits due to the inability to work. I stopped work in feburary of 2011 and started back at work in November 2011. The Centrelink letter advised me that information was obtained from the ATO that I earned money during my time on sickness benefits however this was not true.

I rang Centrelink and they said my pay that I earned within that year was calculated every fortnight and I needed payslips to prove this. Basically this computer system had assumed I was working the whole year but I only worked 4 months.

After numerous phone calls and weeks of waiting for payslips to be sent to me, I eventually obtained them and contacted Centrelink again. I spoke to a lovely lady who helped me so much in figuring out what had happened. She calculated the new figure that I owed by referring to my bank statements as I was disputing only the time frame in which they were trying to get me for. So turns out I only owe $300 instead of $9200.

If I was unable to prove that this system was completely wrong in calculating a ridiculous figure, I have no idea how I would have paid this.