I received a random text message while I was away on holidays informing me to call a number, so I called it back and it ended up being a debt collection agency for centrelink informing me that I owe $8045.39, I was shocked and irritated as I had not been on Centrelink for over 5 years so why are they chasing me for money now? So I went to a centrelink office first time in years and got given a letter and not much explanation and 2 hours of my life gone, and basically got told oh sorry because you didn't update your address its now with a debt collector agency, oh wait I haven't been on it in over 5 years whats the point of updating my address. After much research I found out that "the government" is auditing basically almost everyone for back money owed. I did a lot of calling around and asking for required information how they came to this amount and what dates this was calculated from and waited basically 2 weeks for all the paperwork to come in the mail. After receiving all the paperwork which did not explain anything and was not what I asked for I talked to one helpful lady who informed me of everything and finally started to get answers where she put to me that I should appeal it and I though oh well after reading stories on notmydebt.com.au.
After appealing it and speaking with the right department and giving Centrelink copies of old payslips from 2010 she re calculated it and from a total of $8045 and a bad credit rating I now only owe $349.45 and I am not going to appeal it anymore cos $345 and no bad credit rating is a lot better then $8045.49 and a bad credit rating.
This total experience mad me so upset and angry as I am suppose to get married this year and that was the price of my wedding and trying to save to move out of home. I feel this whole system is a waste of money as the government is so greedy and decides to have more money in there pockets then helping the people who need it!! I was on Centrelink to better myself off as I was an apprentice living out of home trying to do my time so I could have a career and make something of myself so I wouldn't have to be on benefits anymore as I was entitled to it being on such a low wage. I feel like anytime you ever go on it as you need the help they will whinge, be extremely rude and unhelpful and just expect you to pay large sums of money and the government auditing all these people I mean come on, why don't you actually pursue the people doing the wrong thing not the one person who was trying to better his life off when he was younger and make something of himself.
They were extremely unprofessional for such a big government department like I didn't update my address because I wasn't on it for years. This whole thing how they update your income and just assume you have to pay back money working out an average when they don't take into account some of those periods you weren't even working. The lines are even slower then what they use to be and even more rude people at the office that really don't want to help you at all even though that is there job. You waste hours and weeks waiting for a simple straight answer and not to mention the stress and just thinking oh what's the point of arguing totally unfair for us few people that were entitled to the benefit and needed it for whatever stage of our life were in.