Any one had a big debt with centrelink??

[kath87]

With out going into all the details I have been over payed by centerlink by around $3000 due to underdeclairing my income ( so my fault) and I was just wanting to know if this has happened to any one else, also did they take you to court??

[mimsie]

I had a debt that came up that involved about 4 years of incorrect information from when DH was only earning casual income and the kids were really little. They hadn't put in my information correctly so they were paying me at a higher rate and I didn't know about it, it was a long time ago!

Anyway at some point I got into doing everything online and that was fine, but then along comes a bill from a 4 year period some time before that, and it was for $8000 (which sounds massive but when you spread it over 4 years, and have given them the right info you think it's right - it's only $76 a pay more. Even though I'd been reporting fortnightly for DH's income, I think it was the FTB rates that they had wrong.

It was a massive shock and so out of nowhere!! His pay changed every year after I started doing updates online, because he started an apprenticeship, so I didn't connect anything when I registered and began updating my own estimates, as I was raising the total so expected a drop.

Anyway I am still paying that off now, but there's never been any mention of court or anything like that. I've been paying it off for over a year, nearly 2 now!

[mummakate]

Yeah, I had a couple of debts because I was overpaid. Nope, didn't go to court, they just took some money out of my fortnightly payments until it was paid off.

I'm now in the middle of recovering one of those big payments. So we'll see how that goes! They certainly aren't as quick to fix their mistakes as they are at picking up other peoples!

[mygrl]

I have debt to and i was also worried about court issues. I havent heard anything and i pay back the money each fortnight. The debt was raised around april of last year and to this date i havent heard anything about court. Good luck you'll be right :)

[halloweenmum]

HI, the general rule is that you only go to court or get prosecuted for debts over $10000. For all smaller debts you can just pay them off, anywhere from $20 per fortnight upwards depending on what you can afford.

[nat278]

Hi,

They only take you to court if there is reason to suspect 'intentional' or deliberate' fraud of a substantial amount.

I have a HUGE debt with them (over $10,000) and there is no court action or anything as the reason for my debt is known to them AND I went to them to tell them about the problem.

IMO, they would only take you to court if it was beneficial to them and they were at risk of not getting their money back (ie. no longer qaulify to get a payment from them).

They will let you set an amount to pay it back yourself if you want but if they send you a debt notice and you do nothing with it they will automatically start taking money from your payments they told me they take MAXIMUM 15% of your payment (FTB or PP not 15% of both payments together is my understanding).

You can call and change amount they take anytime or pay extra to pay it off quicker and no time limit to pay it off.

HTH

Nat :flowerz: