Just thought I would share something that has just happened to my friend. Her and husband were undergoing some financial hardship, he is the only one working. They have a new baby and a 2 yr old & 6 yr old, her hubby earns too much for her to receive any government support excluding a very small amount of family tax. She decided to claim single parent payment even though they are together, she was only doing this for 6 months and has been found out by Centrelink. She is now in trouble with them and has to pay back all of the money she received, she is devastated and they are left even worst off than before. She was warned by friends to not lie to Centrelink in the first place and they could find out. So I just wanted thought I would let everyone know that if you do get tempted to when times are tough to claim a single parent payment, people do get caught! And be prepared to pay back all of the $$$$ and have extra consequences as well.
6 Replies
Yep, now if she ever is in the position of needing a pension she is going to have a hard time.
People that do what your friend did infuriate me. I've been in the position of genuinely needing a pension and the hoops you have to jump through make an already stressful time even more so. Not to mention giving genuine claimers a bad reputation.
There is always another solution other than committing fraud!
I think its always best to be honest I think I also know someone doing this makes me angry and annoyed. we are also doing it hard.... but we dont expect centrelink to pay for us by doing the wrong thing. I do things the right way And like above go through all the requirements. It is unfair when people do this because there are genuine people in need that dont get help.
No sympathy! People like your friend make it so hard for genuine people like myself! And if they can't afford to have children they shouldn't be having anymore!!! There are plenty of other means to generate income other than ripping off the system!!
Sorry but sucked in to her!! I'm a stay at home parent and my husband works his butt off and he pays a shit load of tax, why should his hard earned tax money support a welfare cheat? If they are so hard up for money why doesn't she go and get a job like normal people do?? Single parent assistance is for people who truely need it, not someone who just thinks they need more money. I bet if someone looked at what they spend their money on there could be lots of cuts made!
Rorting the system that so many depend on is so wrong. Making it harder for those who genuinely need it. She should be named and shamed for her illegal actions. It was fraud and deceit . People like her make my blood boil. Both her and her husband need to be punished to the full extent of the law including jail time
OK.. she did the wrong thing. But hows Centrelinks form? Why do they make it easy for low life's who can work but choose not to because they don't want to be told what to do? Why not investigate them? Get them off their lazy butts and make them pay tax. Centerlink need to stop generalizing and start looking at case by case situations. And what have Centrelink done for this woman and her family? have they offered any sort of financial services such as budget education to help them manage what income they do get so they might be able to survive on just his wage? No, let's just chastise her and make her feet like a failure. WAKE UP AUSTRALIA