Hi ladies,
Has anyone appealed a Centrelink Debt and been denied then appealed again through the Administrative Appeals Tribunal and won? I appealed a $13K debt that I was notified about in late 2018 and every 3 months I’ve had to call up to put the debt on hold until they had finalised my appeal. Throughout this time, every Centrelink employee had told me that it was a computer error for the overpayment and that I’d done everything right. I had a call today from the internal reviewer who agreed that the debt was their error, he also believed I was honest and didn’t know I was being overpaid but the reason he said I have to pay it back is because I don’t meet the “financial hardship requirements”. I’m a single Mum with 2 kids with a mortgage and on reduced hours due to Covid earning JobKeeper - how is that not hardship? Over a Centrelink error too, I wasn’t misleading anyone. I am taking this further to the AAT and would love some advice or positive outcome stories if anyone has one. Thank you!
4 Replies
I guess you were given more than your entitled to and hence you have a debt. Even if that was unknowing.
Can you pay it back in small increments?
I went to the AAT to appeal my sons NDIA funding. The AAT were lovely to deal with.
I have no idea if you are legally required to pay or not, but the AAT themselves were pleasant and wasn’t as scary as I thought it would be.
You were overpaid regardless of if it was your fault or theirs. Same as if your employer overpaid you, they would want you to return the overpayment.
It sounds like a Robodebt that there is a class action for. Contact Gordon Legal... look it up in google. Your debt will be dropped. The same thing happened to me and I’m now due to have $11.000 paid back to me. Good luck