centrelink vent

[Catastrophic]

Heylo
Im not happy with centerlink at the moment! I got my FTB $600 per child thingy the other day, now because we havent had the boys for the full year we were aware that we weren't getting the full payment for them. and we would get a little extra becuase i over estimated tims earnings

Anyway the payment that we got seemed right to what the lady on the phone said we should get...

Then every fortnight i have to put in my partners earnings and i did this on thursday ( if i dont do it i dont get paid) and they paid me ( because there was already money in my bank account i didnt check to see how much or whatever)

And it turns out they have over payed me, 500dollars with the FTB saying something about it being an automatic payment and they didnt cross check us having the boys for the whole year? Something about noahs payment.

And then they did it again for my fornightly pp - over payed me 200, becuase they didnt reconise my partners earnings even though i put it in! And this didnt happen just once it happen twice!

I dont understand why they are doing all these stuff ups! i have to pay them all back! n its just not fair!

Its ok, rant over! just annoyed!

[krysalyss]

Centrelink is so prone to stuff ups. And never believe what one person says on the phone because you may very well get a different answer if you get someone else.
I would call them up and ask for a payment plan. You can pay back a small amount each payment so you won't really notice it being gone.
I hope this helps.

[briggsy's girl]

if you don't agree with debts that have been raised, you can always appeal them. if you have provided information, and have receipt numbers to confirm the call, you can always appeal. that is what the appeals process is in place for. i would suggest you call up and find out what happened to cause the ftb debt - what information was changed on your record to cause the debt - what extra information was received. everything is done with computers, so there is always a footprint to show what information was changed, what created a debt

if you were ringing in your partners income, there will be record of what you have provided. if you were reporting via self service, you should have receipt numbers, if talking to consultants there will be notes on your file. if you have under reported income for whatever reason, the debt will stand - but if you have reported correctly, there should be no debt - so again, go back and ask them to check what was changed to create the debt.

and yes, you don't have to pay it back in a lump sum - you can arrange to pay it fortnightly out of your payments

[ellasmummy]

I have had a similiar problem with overpayment, been going back and forwards between centrelink and ato for 2 days now. c/link say that the ato have told them I earnt $11K last fin year, and i didn't tell them so they have taken my whole tax return. duh, prob cos I didn't earn that much!!! (i receive a carer payment for my sick daughter, apparently this is classed as income, as well as $1700 from accrued annual leave from my job i resigned from in may). c/link say its up to ato to fix, and ato say they cant do anything its c/links stuff up. aaauughhh so annoying!!! so now i have to wait to get my tax return back, plus the supplement payment can't be issued until the tax return stuff is resolved. waiting for a call back from a manager - wont hold my breath! sorry for the rant, thanks for letting me vent

[BeautifulMadness]

i hate the whole centrelink system lol

[Neenee Jellybeanie]

They're just insane, aren't they?! I hate centrelink too! SUCH incompetence. I'm sure they do it on purpose to discourage people from claiming benefits.

When I was on jobseeker allowance, I was overpaid because I went to thailand for a week and there was this whole antic about what I was entitled to while I was away. The stupid thing is, it was the same woman who served me both times and she still gave me the payment twice, wtf? Centrelink didn't get back to me about this until I was no longer elligible for a benefit, and demanded I pay the money back. I was pregnant, unable to get a job (no one would hire a pregnant lady) and no longer entitled to the benefit as my partners income was over the threshold. I told them there is no way in all hell I can repay it yet because they aren't giving me a benefit and they're just going to have to wait until I give birth. That was fine, it was organized. Then a few months later, I get a letter from a collection agency! It's a screw-up, but they say they can't change it. In the end I ignored the antics of the agency and the money came out automatically when I started receiving payments, though I suspect I have a bad credit history because of it.

[briggsy's girl]

I have had a similiar problem with overpayment, been going back and forwards between centrelink and ato for 2 days now. c/link say that the ato have told them I earnt $11K last fin year, and i didn't tell them so they have taken my whole tax return. duh, prob cos I didn't earn that much!!! (i receive a carer payment for my sick daughter, apparently this is classed as income, as well as $1700 from accrued annual leave from my job i resigned from in may). c/link say its up to ato to fix, and ato say they cant do anything its c/links stuff up. aaauughhh so annoying!!! so now i have to wait to get my tax return back, plus the supplement payment can't be issued until the tax return stuff is resolved. waiting for a call back from a manager - wont hold my breath! sorry for the rant, thanks for letting me vent

any income support payment is classified as an income for FTB purposes - some are tax free (disability pension) but most are taxable. if the ATO are saying you earnt the money, than it's up to the ATO to fix it. nothing centrelink can do - all the details of taxable income are transferred direct from the ATO to c'link - so any updates HAVE to be made at the ATO end.

i understand that dealing with ANY organisation can have it's frustrations, and i know that c'link is probably the one that everyone rubbishes the most because of the fact that almost everyone has had some sort of dealings with them - but let's be realistic - there is no grand conspiracy to make it difficult for you! welfare payments are a sensitive issue, and the government (not c'link) make the rules as to what you need to do to claim those payments. employees can only do what they can within the delegations they have.

and as i've said before, you always have the right to appeal any decision you don't agree with.

just remember, for every negative, there are hundreds of positive outcomes that you don't hear about. having the negative "centrelink sucks" or "centrelink makes it hard" attitude just makes the customer negative, they give the consultant a hard time - and consultants are people that will help - if you give them reason to!! who, in ANY role, is gonna go beyond what they HAVE to do, to help a person that is treating them like cr@p?

there are obviously situations where people will be unhappy - but honestly, i speak to 50 people a day, and half of them come onto the phone ready to treat me like i'm nothing simply because i answer a phone for c'link and they "hate c'link" because of something they heard that happened to they're mother's best friends daughter's cousin...

[sweetpea678]

BG,

I thought I would say I have not prob with centrelink, I have always found the people on the end of the phone great. People need to do research and not think the centrelink peopl are mircale workers and fix everything in a day.

I rang them just before bub was born as I got money I didn't think I should of but it was mine yeah, it was for my DD#2, nice supprise.

[ellasmummy]

thanks briggy's girl, I phoned c/link again this week and asked if they were sure they could fix it or if the ato should do something, and they said it's c/link fault and they will get it fixed, but can take 3 weeks as a special dept (can't remember who?) is the only one that can change the taxable income ammt. got a phone call from a lady who thank god knew what she was talking about and she apologised for all the incorrect info I had previously recd. she said ato shouldn't have said i had to declare my carer pymt as non taxable and doesn't need to be put on tax return at all. she told me exactly what to say to ato and is calling me back on friday to make sure ammendment form has been sent to ato,then will follow it up again once they rec new info,and send pymt. yay!!!

[Catastrophic]

thanks for your advice girls!
I have spoken to c'link about the debts they just keep saying because it is a automatic payment there is nothing they can do. it is getting takin out fortnightly so i dont see it... But they have now not taken in tims earnings for the last 3fortnights and keep giving me the full amount. Aghhh lol!

So with what you were saying BG can i appeal this debt because each time i have done the right thing and giving them all the correct information? Unsure of the debt appeal process... But i do understand if why i have a debt because they have overpaid me but that isnt my fault ...

And on the topic of talking to centrelink people - i usually get really lovely ladies or males and help me out so much :-) I even accidently told one of them i loved them! i was hanging up the phone and for a split second got confused and though i was talking to mum or tim hehe!

[briggsy's girl]

you can appeal ANY debt or decision that has been made. you just have to provide evidence that you were not the one at fault

so, in the case you're mentioning - if you've been reporting earnings every fortnight and still being over paid, then you appeal based on that - but you have to have receipt numbers to prove your contact with c'link if you've reported via self service.