SUSAN Christie never considered not seeking another job after she was made redundant.
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Ms Christie, from Waratah West, registered with Centrelink but also worked casually for four employers during the 2011 financial year.
“I was taking whatever work I could get,” she said.
“I’ve worked since I was 16 and I had two children to support – just being on Centrelink wasn’t enough.
“I wanted a job for my own self respect and self esteem.”
Ms Christie, now working on a permanent part time basis, is one of many across the state recently targeted under Centrelink’s new automated debt recovery process. The computer-generated letters demand repayment – in some cases wrongfully – and give recipients three weeks to establish their eligibility to have received the payments.
Ms Christie has been told she must start a payment plan of $100 a fortnight while the dispute over her possible $2998 overpayment is being reviewed.
“I live from week to week and it’s going to make a dent,” she said. “I can’t believe they won’t suspend the payments until they investigate. I did the right thing and reported every fortnight. If a mistake was made then, they should have known then.”
Ms Christie said both she and Centrelink have access to the receipt numbers from her fortnightly reports, when she told the agency the hours she worked and what she had earned. But this isn’t enough.
She has been asked for her payslips, which she no longer has, and bank statements that will show her pay history.
Newcastle MP Sharon Claydon slammed changes to the agency’s compliance processes, which have seen welfare recipients’ records matched with other government data, including reported income information. She said the government needed to suspend the automated system immediately.
“The onus of proving they don’t owe anything is placed entirely on the recipient. The amount of distress and upset this debt clawback debacle has caused vulnerable people is disgraceful.”
Department of Human Services general manager Hank Jongen said last month the government had confidence in the system.