a bit of a vent-family tax supplment

[jessgray]

ok here goes i have never been that confident in working out the family estimate and have always got c/link to do it for me. and i trust them to do it right. well today, i got a letter saying they overpaid us in the tax supplement by 434 dollars!!!
when i rang them 3 times to be sure the estimate before we got paid was right etc and when we realised DP had to do a tax return (after his ex boss had told him he didnt need to as it was cash in hand then sent a tax certificate to dp 2 weeks later) even then they said the estimate was fine and nothign needed to change
now we owe c/link money :(
and i honestly did everything to make sure it wouldnt happen.i have my tax benifet payments adjusted so they cant over pay me and the estimate is doen by them as we are both on c/link payments so how could c/link get it so wrong??

[KarniF00l]

Maybe your DP did extra hours. That's probably why. It's always best to over estimate your annual income just in case and that way they back pay you aswell which is handy.

We over estimate ours by 3k every year.

[jessgray]

nope his tax thingy only had 290 withheld and thats how much he got back today. i am just so annoyed that c/link told me i didnt need to re-do my estimate when clearly it needed to be changed.

[FourAngelKisses]

Sorry to hear that.....whatever your DP earned this year, add about $5000 to it and give them that figure as next years estimate.


We over-estimate by 12 grand each year.....our payments drop by $100 per FN, but we get it all back at tax time.

[jessgray]

i think i will over estimate from now on i dont trust c/link's math skills lol
would i be in a fair postion to lodge a complaint to c/link about this?

[KarniF00l]

No because either way you still have to pay them back regardless who's in the right or wrong.. i know it sucks but thats the way it is :rolleyes:

[grubindi]

you need to ring centrelink and get them to investigate where the arrears came from because I was advised that i owed them 3500 this year as i had supposedly been overpaid yet when i rang they could not give me detailed info as to how it had come about so i told them to investigate it as they took my tax return and my supplements, then after around 4 days the money was all put back into my account (all of the supplements and my tax return) so i didnt owe anything in the first place. the computer system supposedly got something confused which then generated arrears so I will tell everyone make sure if they say you have a debt get them to either give you detailed info of when and how it happened or INVESTIGATE how it happened. because there are heaps of cases where it is wrong. believe me i was one of the people if i hadnt got it investigated they would be sitting pretty with my 3500 instead of to its rightful owner me.

[jessgray]

:crying: im sitting on hold c/link say its my fault coz meand dp swapped payments during the yr i went on youth allowance from parenting and he went on parenting.
i told them how i never did my estimate myself and the lady has given me this lame excuse of they wouldnt do it without ur permission and i said they did over the phone coz i didnt know how 2 do it.and its still MY fault:mad:

they want to take $40 off my tax benfiet to recover the debt and we cant afford that at all :( between paying for all the stuff ds needs coz he cant eat certain foods and formulas and asthma stuff and bills and our rent we struggle as it is now 2 survive.i told the lady we cant afford 40 a fortnight and thats when she launched into this big speech about how i can appeal the descion but she added at the end it prolly wouldnt change a thing and stuck me on hold.

[KarniF00l]

Don't back down hon. Be very firm with them. :thumbsup:

When we had something go wrong with the power, DH got on the phone and said "Well you f'en come to my house and feed my children without any electricity". The lady was quick to organise something after he said that. :laughing:

[jessgray]

:banghead: they put me through to debt recovery and they said dp's tax was done twice. so its our fault. i ask how is it our fault when we did everything fault when we did it all right how are we spose 2 know of a tax return being twice?
now i am on hold while family assistance has me on hold while they "look into" why it all happened.

[jessgray]

:( im spose to be resting and trying not to stress out today fat chance of that happening.

[jessgray]

dp says its 2 yrs in a row they have over paid him.he isnt happy he jsut woke up too

[clarebear1983]

:banghead: they put me through to debt recovery and they said dp's tax was done twice. so its our fault. i ask how is it our fault when we did everything fault when we did it all right how are we spose 2 know of a tax return being twice?
now i am on hold while family assistance has me on hold while they "look into" why it all happened.

What do they mean your dps tax was done twice???????? that sounds a bit weird..............................centrelink seems to think we are telepathic, clairvoyant and a bunch of other things with the things we are suposed to "know"

[FourAngelKisses]

Yeah, I was wondering that too. I think your DP would know if he had done his tax return twice.

[brizbabe]

:crying: im sitting on hold c/link say its my fault coz meand dp swapped payments during the yr i went on youth allowance from parenting and he went on parenting.
i told them how i never did my estimate myself and the lady has given me this lame excuse of they wouldnt do it without ur permission and i said they did over the phone coz i didnt know how 2 do it.and its still MY fault:mad:

they want to take $40 off my tax benfiet to recover the debt and we cant afford that at all :( between paying for all the stuff ds needs coz he cant eat certain foods and formulas and asthma stuff and bills and our rent we struggle as it is now 2 survive.i told the lady we cant afford 40 a fortnight and thats when she launched into this big speech about how i can appeal the descion but she added at the end it prolly wouldnt change a thing and stuck me on hold.

When the Centrelink officer assisted you with estimating your income for the financial year, you HAVE to agree with the amount before it is input into your record. You would have also received a letter confirming that elected estimate and therefore it is your responsibility to ensure that it is accurate as possible and change it as appropriate.

If the only payment you receive is an income support payment (youth, PP, Newstart etc) Centrelink can advise you of how much you have received SO far in the financial year, the current fortnightly rate and use their calculaters to determine how much at that rate you might receive for the rest of the financial year and add the 2 amounts together for you to consider if that is a suitable estimate to use. It is your decision to use this or not and it is recommended to slightly increase due to the CPI increases in the year.

From the perspective from Centrelink , they are not mind readers in regards to your personal income circumstances and at least twice a year the income support payments increase so at the very least you should be looking at checking and updating your estimates at this time. You get letters advising of the increase in payments.......

Having said that, I hope all works out for you in the end.:)

[~Emmylou~]

I agree - I wouldn't trust them to get it right they're idiots :mad:

We work it out as best we can and then we add some on - about 5-10k. We've never been caught with a bill and every year we get a refund. This year we got $1500 that we weren't expecting so that was really good :thumbsup:

[Shelly68]

But you said at the start of your post that DH got paid cash in hand, so that in itself is illegal (to get paid cash in hand).

[jessgray]

we still dont know why his tax was done twice. by cash in hand i mean it was in a wage evelope every fortnight he worked there for 6 weeks or there abouts and c/link knew that coz i had to tell them so they could adjust my parenting payments.

everytime i got my estimate re-done i never got a letter. this is the first i heard of getting a letter to confirm the estimate.

look i came here looking for advice on what to do i dont need people to judge me or be rude to me.

[brizbabe]

we still dont know why his tax was done twice. by cash in hand i mean it was in a wage evelope every fortnight he worked there for 6 weeks or there abouts and c/link knew that coz i had to tell them so they could adjust my parenting payments.

everytime i got my estimate re-done i never got a letter. this is the first i heard of getting a letter to confirm the estimate.

look i came here looking for advice on what to do i dont need people to judge me or be rude to me.

Jess, Advising of fortnightly wages/income only adjusts your parenting payment not your actual ANNUAL income estimates-the 2 payments (PP/Youth and the FTB are calculated separately) so this might be where the issue of an overpayment has occured. Whereas your income support payments are calculated on a fortnight to fortnight basis your FTB is based on the overall financial year actual income. :) You certainly have the right to appeal any overpayment, this is a simple call to the FAO and asking the customer service advisor to put one through for you. Investigation is actually done by your "home" office and can take a few weeks. Even if you are appealing an overpayment you still need to make repayments and if at the end of the investigation process it is deemed that you are in the right, any monies repaid will be refunded to you-once again I hope it works out for you:fingerscrossed:

[dragonflyblu]

Sounds like a nightmare. I really hope it works out for you. I would be asking for everything in writing. It is a really complicated system. Its easy for everyone to say to just overestimate your income but doesnt that mean you will be left with less money each fortnight? So I am not sure how that will work when you cant afford a reduction in payments of $40 a fortnight now. Anyway, I dread having to deal with centrelink again. Keep talking to the centrelink office I am sure there is something they can do, maybe they can spread the repayment over a longer period? :hugs:

[sam's mum]

I don't mean to cause offense but...

the staff in Centrelink are not accountants. They may do their best to try and help you to come up with a figure for your taxable income, but they can only work on what you give them. Also, as someone else has said, you need to make sure that they know that you want your taxable income changed for the family payment - this really is a totally different thing.

Taxable income is not the same as maths. You could have five families, with the same gross income, have five different taxable incomes because of all the variables - where they live (remote locality allowances), medicare levy exemptions, number of dependents, allowances, deductions.......

If you can't afford to repay a debt at the rate they request, you can ask to have the repayments reduced for up to 13 payments at a time. They may ask you to complete a statement of financial circumstances (details of your income and expenses) to justify the amount that you are asking they reduce it to.

above all, please remember that Centrelink staff are people too. I used to work the counter, but I couldn't take it any more. especially the people that would try to give you their kids and tell you to feed them then. Most of the time the person in front of you is doing all that they can to help already. (assuming that they have not already been burnt out by abuse).

[jessgray]

if ftb isnt done by taxable income why was part b (i think it was that one) adjusted?
DP rang his accountant and was told his tax return was sent off once, so it was the ATO who did it twice and sent to FAO twice. but i doubt we will get told why. i hate sittting on hold for an hour trying to get answers to a question and then being told the same thing "i dont know why"

i just cant belive they waited abotu 4 weeks after paying the famiyl tax suplment into my account to send a letter saying they overpaid us. MIL got a letter as well saying the same thing but diff amount (DP has a younger sister aged 14 or 15) and she went to the same accountant as DP and she has been told her tax return went through twice as well from ATO but she only did it once with the accountant. something wierd is going on...

[Shelly68]

I would seriously be getting on to the accountant,

it sounds to me like they have submitted the Tax Returns twice (this would be the only way the ATO would process them twice), but then you'd think there would be a failsafe that would pop up with the Tax File Number has already been processed (IYKWIM).

But if both returns were processed at exactly the same time then the system would not have recognised it.

[cupcakemafia]

i have to agree with sam's mum and brizbabe here, im sick of seeing Centrelink staff (including myself) being called idiots etc.

we're doing our best to help you, we are people too, and we can only work with what is given to us. Letters confirming ANY action on your record are automatically sent to you by the system, and if its been sent to the wrong address and comes back to us, we contact you to ensure we have your updated address.

in regards to FTB income estimates, everything inputted into the system is confirmed with you before we enter it in, and this is confirmed in the letters sent afterwards, so if it was wrong it is your responsibility to let us know.

I know things can go wrong - but I think what really gets my goat is that the people you speak to on the phone ARE people, not idiots, not scum of the earth. we go home at night a lot of the time worrying about our customers and most of the time we only stay in the job because of the satisfaction of knowing that we're trying to make a positive difference to people's lives.

Gah, I think I've just had a bad day. I guess that happens when you have people abuse you over the phone constantly for something that wasn't your fault.

I hope it all works out in the end. Just remember that if there is something you dont agree with, you can always appeal a Centrelink decision.