A Bega woman has found the stress in dealing with a disputed Centrelink debt so difficult she would rather pay it back than continue fighting to clear it.
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When disability support pensioner Fiona Howarth, who supports two daughters, moved into a Bega unit in December 2015 she provided Centrelink with paperwork in order to receive rent assistance payments.
The 43-year-old post traumatic stress disorder sufferer’s woes began in January this year when she was contacted by the Department of Human Services claiming she had wrongly been paid the assistance over the previous 13 months.
“I provided them with my current lease and a copy of my rental ledger, I also stated to them that my rent had come directly out of my Centrelink payments to the real estate,” Ms Howarth said.
“I took this into my local office who turned me away twice because they were on strike and there was no staff there to help me.”
It was later established she was entitled to receive rent assistance and was back paid arrears as a result, she claims.
Then three months later she received a letter claiming she was $1000 in debt to the department.
“I’ve contacted them again and they have established that I am entitled to rent assistance, however when they fixed up my rent assistance they forgot to amend the debt and wipe it,” she said.
“So again I had to go through the process of proving that I actually did live in a house and paid rent.”
Ms Howarth claims the Bega office misplaced her rental ledger and lease and she was again forced to provide paperwork.
Following over 30 hours on the phone to the department, five office visits and an email to customer relations she decided to pay back the debt via a payment plan.
“I have just been in tears because of the hoops they make me jump through, then when I jump through those hoops they just extend the finishing line,” she said.
“Even though I cant afford $1000, it really is so much easier to pay it than the trauma of dealing with Centrelink.”
Ms Howarth was contacted last week by Centrelink in response to her email, again requesting she provide the paperwork to clear the debt – she declined due to her distrust of the department.
A department spokesperson said help is always provided “where people request it and this has not changed”.
New research from the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute shows the number of people who will be eligible for government rent assistance is expected to rise to 1.5million by 2031.
“About half of the predicted increase is due to demographic changes, and the other half to an increase in private rental housing’s tenure share,” the report states.
