I knew this debt was false as soon as I saw the dates where they claim that I didn't report my earnings from 7th April 2011 till May 18th 2011. I was made redundant from my job and replaced with people on 457 visas on the 7th April 2011. A very stressful time in my life as my father was diagnosed with terminal cancer and I and 40 other co-workers lost their jobs and I felt unfairly made redundant.
The 7th April is my long deceased mother's birthday, so it was a double whammy to be made unemployed on her birthday (a time of grieving) and to be struggling with my father's declining health. How can I have not reported my earnings for a period that I had not worked and did not get any redundancy pay as I was only working casual at the company? I had no earnings to declare! I was freshly unemployed on that date - I did not walk right into another job on the day I was made redundant. When I was talking to a chap at Centrelink he seemed to know what had happened and said I have a good chance of beating the debt. I have not heard anything back from centrelink regarding my appeal. This whole debt thing has taken me right back to 2011- an intensely anxious and depressing time in my life. In fact that's what i was treated for at the time - anxiety and depression. My life had been on a downward spiral ever since. Dad passed away in October 2011. Ironically I hadn't worked at a job and paid tax till I started back at the company doing the very job I was made redundant from. So 2016 was the first year I'd done a tax return since I was made redundant and soon afterward this fake debt was raised.
Outraged, anxious and increasingly worried, is how I feel about how the government has handled the whole process. I did not find out about the supposed debt until Dun and Bradstreet began to phone me. I didn't receive the letter till after they began to harass me daily for money. I'd moved house and even though I have a post office box I hardly ever check it because there's hardly ever any mail in it. So I went and had a look and sure enough there was a few letters from Centrelink and Dun and Bradstreet. I'm angry that they handed over a debt without contacting me.
They clearly had my phone number as they gave it to Dun and Bradstreet! Why couldn't they have called me? Why did I not receive a text to say that I had a letter from Centrelink as was usually the way it went? I'm extremely angry and upset a government agency given my private information to a third party - a private business without my knowledge or permission. I thought this was illegal? That's what they taught me at TAFE when I studied Community Services.
My levels of anxiety shot back through the roof getting phone calls from angry sounding people who tried by using the ominous sounding tone of their voices to intimidate and frighten me into paying a debt I knew was not mine. Speaking to me as though I was some kind of low life criminal. I told them more than once that I had appealed and explained the situation to a couple of the callers, only to keep getting several calls per day for weeks on end before Christmas.
Once I knew they were not listening I just didn't answer their calls. They thought they were being smart calling me with their own personal mobile numbers so i couldn't see blocked number or recognise the number. I did answer a few of those but hung up pretty quick smart once the recorded messages began or if it was a real person trying to get me to confirm my identity (they tried all manner of ways). I was at work and had no time to deal with this kind of harassment.
How dare the Government and Centrelink treat honest people as though they are criminals!
I think it's just revenue raising because they're too incompetent and weak to tax corporations. They think they can bully the vulnerable people with little or no resources to fight back against this Machiavellian scheme. They've sacked too many Centrelink staff for it as an entity to operate correctly, who incidentally I have no problem with. They are trying their best to do an impossible job under these circumstances. The LNP ideology is not conducive to reality and is hurting so many people, this must not be tolerated. When will members of parliament of all ilk realise they are not above the law and the people?
And to listen to Alan Tudge, Hank Jongren and Christian Porter on television saying that there's no problem and everything's working fine with the new system, just clearly illustrates their deceit and callousness. Just about everyone I know have been issued with these 'debts' and by the law of averages this seems outrageous to me - alarm bells are ringing. Something's very wrong when a government deliberately sets out to misinform - to gain financial reward from the most vulnerable of it's people. Threatening people with their credit ratings if they don't pay is extortion and blackmail. Not a good look from those who are elected to serve us. I doubt they'll be elected again for a long time come next election.