Yes, I have a debt with Centrelink. I had problems trying to report my earnings when I was completing my forms online; I was reporting monthly, but could only enter 2 weeks' wages each time. When I went into the Centrelink office to sort this out, with the staff person laboriously checking off my payslips against my records, I was told that everything was fine, and I'd even have $20 paid into my account the following day. What I got, along with my $20, was a letter telling me I owed them $1200, because I was overpaid for the weeks that I wasn't able to report my income. It turns out that the person I saw did know this, as it would have been immediately flagged on my record once she had input all my info, and could have told me about it at the time, but she chose not to. They are supposed to tell us about these things straight away, but often don', in order to avoid difficult situations. I thought it was pretty cowardly, especially as I was being really straightfoward...
Personal reflections from my life as a high school teacher with a disability.