NotMyDebt Stories
We are collecting stories on the site because we think it's important to have a way to people to add their voice to this issue by sharing their story. It's puts a human voice to the issues with using technology and automating systems and providing a blanket solution without providing staff and people that can right wrongs and help people when there is an error.
Please share your story with us if you have a Centrelink debt story that you believe has been issued in error or due to a fault in the system.
As frustrating as it is, persist with the appeals process, and know others are behind you.
Stories are 100% anonymous
I was sent a letter advising that I owed close to $1500, including the recovery fee. I immediately went to check my on line Centrelink account and found that these dates are not available on my account any longer. I completed the employment assessment and it came out with the same result.
As you can imagine, I'm not happy, already have anxiety and depression issues and this has set it all off more than I'd imagine.
Centrelink said that they had sent me a previous letter to which I did not respond to, I did not receive the first letter as my mother is my second contact person and she received duplicates of all my centrelink correspondence and she did not receive the first notification .
I originally received a letter telling me to confirm my employment income, so I went online and did this and my debt came out at a whopping $19,100.07!!
When I received my debt advise, I felt utterly outraged to how such a debt could possibly occur. To my full knowledge and understanding I have reported my income on time and correctly. I am absolutely confused and deeply anxious. Not to this day have I received a full explanation to how such a debt was apparently created.
This is the third figure they have come up with and it is still not right. I gave them a daily breakdown of the hours I worked for the 2 month period in question, as my payslips were monthly.
I have a history of mental illness/anxiety it has been diagnosed and I have spent some time getting the amount of care provided by professionals.
I act as Centrelink nominee for my daughter. The debt alleged that she owed $9409. After ringing Compliance and having the debt confirmed and it was strongly suggested that a payment plan be entered into. The alleged debt was completely false.
I can't sleep, I am constantly stressed and irritable and I have no idea how I am going to pay it all back.
I'm a 35 year old single female who suffers from an anxiety disorder living in Sydney away from my family in Adelaide.
I was on a disability support pension and was required to report every fortnight. I followed the reporting to the T. I jumped through the hoops as required and did everything that was required.
Many hours and days were wasted trying to resolve this error that was caused by a 'computer glitch' ha ha, where my youngest child's initial entry to Australia (permanent resident visa) had been overlooked in the system and suddenly, all these years later we were being asked to repay family tax benefit for this period of time stat
On returning from overseas on 3/12, the Centrelink website would not let me report employment income. I went in to the Centrelink office on 19/12 and reported income. On 1/1/17 I reported online but the website said it accepted, but could not process my report.
I lost my job. I went on newstart. I found a job that was 22.5 hours a week - 3 days per week. So ring Centrelink AND my job provider to understand what I need to do as far as reporting as I AM SO SCARED I am going to get money from Centrelink that I shouldn't get. I don't want to receive it and then pay it back.
I was on the phone to Centrelink, talking to a very lovely lady (it was years ago, so date and exact amount are approximate). We were working through something, updating details or something, when her computer froze. She couldn't figure out what happened. She apologised, and asked if she could put me on hold while she tried to fix it.
I went through the online process alone the first time, and got a debt generated of $5,200.95 - I freaked!
I feel angry and upset. I am a hard working honest person, my community's government is treating my like a thief. Totally devastating!!
I have not received centrelink since 2014. On January 12, I got a centrelink sms, telling me to check my 'my gov' account. When the website finally let me login, I discovered $2615.52 debt owing.
Another False Debt being raised by the Government. My employer no longer exists and because I cannot provided payslips I cannot prove my earnings for the period, and have been "assumed" that I earnt income which I didn't. Centrelink won't listen and have issued a debt.
I knew as soon as I got the debt letter that it was wrong. I work intermittently and receive a part pension. It took several calls over a few weeks with the most recent being over 1.5 hours to clear the erroneous debt and was not a great way to start a new year.
At the beginning of October I received my debt letter totalling $789.53 for the three months that I was claiming Centrelink benefits between early Nov 2014 and mid Feb 2015.
I now have a $820 debt on top of trying to pay back the ato, child care fees, child support. Anxiety levels through the roof. I'm only just making it pay cheque to pay cheque. I never thought I would end up with a debt all of a sudden. I feel scared of them chasing me for it.
The debt was tiny and ridiculously old. The data they had used to infer the debt was obviously wrong. Luckily I could find the payslips in my email archive. No real stress, just a waste of time.
This whole thing has had nothing but made me angry and anxious.
I was studying claiming Austudy or youth allowance or something then suffered a horrific ordeal which left me incapacitated with severe PTSD, I coudn't seek help and continued to live off the student benefit but was failing all my uni subjects.