Rant, I feel helpless in not being able to help my son as he has a debt to the center link which they are making him pay. They are looking at a time frame before I left my partner who at the time earned too much money for my son to receive anything from them.
The employment agency said he worked for a year he didn't he only worked for a couple of months. He has given them all the documentation, proving that he wasn't hiding income. However, they are still asking for more which is before he was even eligible for help from them.
Frustrated and angry because every time he's found work he has cut his payments due to the fact they are a pain to deal with. Has anyone else been through this how did you deal with it is there anything other recourse my son can take?
9 Replies
You need to supply all details they want
Go through bank statements and payslips
Of course his pay is cut every time he gets a job, because he’s earning he get less from Centrelink.
If there is a debt and he didn’t report right then yes he has to pay it back. And even if it’s not his fault and Centrelink made a mistake he has to pay it back because it was not money he was entitled too
When he works he chooses not to take money from them by not reporting which means he doesn’t receive a payment, and it shows in the bank statements. It’s as confusing to us how he could owe anything.
You still have to report 🙄
They otherwise think your hiding something
Until he is in a position not to rely on Centrelink at all ie. full-time work, he might be best off reporting fortnightly even if he isn't entitled to anything, that way they have a record that he reported and that no benefit was paid. Centrelink work out what he earnt across a full 12 months even if he only worked a few months in the year. Some people work only a few months a year and still earn too much to be entitled to any welfare however its not until the end of the financial year when they submit a tax return that Centrelink works out they have been overpaid. The system is complicated and stupid.
Mate, you still have to report or they will assume his income. Thats where he has stuffed up.
All you can do is provide the paperwork that they have requested. I always feel I get the best result actually going in to centrelink to speak to someone rather than on the phone. To be honest though I've had to pay back a debt (a miscommunication between myself and centrelink) and found them great and very accommodating in putting together a payment plan in order to pay back the debt
They are strange in the way they work out their debts! When I was on Newstart between jobs I reported my hours every week with my new job. I was not doing a lot of hours for the first month so I was still eligible for some Newstart apparently. Once I was getting decent hours I ignored their demands for me to keep reporting, there was no point. Fast forward 2 years and 2 tax returns which were fine and had not picked up any overpayments, their system decides I had been overpaid because they balanced my earnings over the whole time I worked, which means the first month when I wasn't doing many hours had been averaged out and they had my income for that month higher than what it was. So the reporting my hours that I had done and the top ups I had received and the payslips I had provided at the time meant nothing to their system. They wanted me to go back to the place I worked which didn't even exist anymore and get payslips and send them in! I thought I had already sent them when I started working 😂 Such a headache I am now paying back a $600 debt that I was entitled to receive.
Provide what they've asked for. They're paying a controlled benefit based on eligibility, if they're investigating his eligibility for it he has to be able to show that. There will be payslips, bank statements, group certificates?
Yes it happened to my son because he was on there books. He supplied them with bank statements and a group certificate from the company he had worked for. It took three months to get a review. While he had payments taken from him. But in the end it was found that the job agency was at fault. He was Reimbursed the money he had paid and he actually received an apology from Centrelink. Sometimes it works out the way it should unfortunately if your son doesn’t give them absolutely everything and yes he will have to pay.