problems with centrelink

centrelink is one of those departments that needs blowing up. i got a letter from them last week letting me know they had suspended 1 of my regular payments because according to their records i had failed to give them certain documents. that was crap as i had done so about 1 month earlier and it was the local office that had failed to pass on the info. as a result i had to go back into the office with the same paperwork. even the paperwork i had wasn't good enough for them. so i made the lady i dealt with to ring the phone number so that she could get the up dated info needed. thankfully it's all been sorted and payment back on. still it's not the first time they had stuffed up and have tried to blame me for it.

I have been lucky and have not had to deal with Centrelink. But I have heard the same story over again about them. It must be something to do with being a government agency!

When they hire people for Centrelink jobs, is it a requirement for them to be totally lacking in skills and personality?!! I hope to have to never deal with them, but in the meantime and ... I hope they sort their crap out for all the people that need to use them.

yeah, there are several problems that i, and know doubt others, have found with centrelink is that they don't check their records properly, fail to communicate with each other and other areas and try to blame innocent people like me who do the right thing and obey the rules. i have found that several times that they have tried to cancel or stop payments because they failed to check things at their end.

A few months ago the mongrels sent me a letter asking if I still lived at the same address, go figure.

this sounds "normal" for them. it's so typical. just shows how stupid and pathetic they are.

ok here is a tip about centrestink and paperwork. when you take a document in they photocopy it and stamp it received. next time u take something in and they stamp it as received, ask for them of a copy with the received stamp on. then when they say u didnt bring something in, you can prove that you bring it in to begin with

At my last checking up I owe them $4,357.50 because of a monumental stuff-up they made while I was at uni. It went before the tribunal and I even got my federal member of parliament involved but they refused to wear it. It almost cost me my degree and now I am unemployed I have my HECS debt and this other debt which I am slowly, but grudgingly, paying off. Apparently they do not make mistakes and, where possible, it is best to fly under the radar and try not to draw attention to yourself. In other words, just go with the flow.

Centrelink is on course to self implode with prefectionism.

I think you are right graycon but the problem, as I see it, is that they are grossly overstaffed. In order to seem irreplacable they create things to do which ultimately effect the lives of other people. They are perfect in the sense that they can do no wrong, in their eyes, and to argue a centrelink decision goes against the laws of nature. I am happy to pay off my wrongfully incurred debt and stay out of their evil gaze. The system is flawed but it's all we got.

Wow Greg, I also owed them around $4000, about 5 years ago.

i was doing a course that they said was Centrelink approved, and i was working part time with the course in a coffee shop.

About 7 months later they decided that i had to pay back the money.

My mum rang this guy in Sydney, his name & Ph no was at the bottom of the form.

After she explained everything to him and he checked up on a few things we didnt have to pay back the money.

It was all Centrelinks fault.

I havnt had much to do with them but i find when i have needed some help between jobs, they dont want to give it to me.

Even when i tell them iv been living on what iv earnt and trying to find work myself, they treat me like im a bludger and i shouldnt be asking them for help.

I hate em.

Love or hate them for some of us hey pay the bill, I have had my fights with then, but when my husband passed away, we were both on disablity support pension and they so helply everything run smoothly. Not caring in that way but they did not f*** me around as usual.
Irene

Holy shit I have just come back home from seeing my buddies at centrelink. It ended with me grabbing a guy by the shirt collar and threatening to do him bodily harmThe funny (or not) thing is that I have to see the guy tomorrow to put my form in, unless I've been de-registered. In which case I will hit the guyjust who the hell do these people think they are. I don't jump through hoops or sit and beg for no-one. They may have have too far by crossing this little black duck, but in the immortal words of Vivian Lee; 'tomorrow is another day'. And in the words of Greg to the centrelink guy 'you can get up out of the foetal position coz I haven't hit you yet'.

Me thinks he might run to the loo when he sees you there Greg. They have such a supercelious attitude they suck. Not called the God department for nothing hey.

when my son had his 16th bthday,my family payments stopped,and he was put on youth allowance,as he was still at school.then in april this year he got into a fight at school and was expelled,the headmaster said he would not expell him if i agreed to remove him.i refused,i wanted him re-enstated,the whole thing wasnt fair to my son,as out of the 3 boys involved, he was the only one to be expelled.because this was a catholic private school,i had to go through a lot of different channels,and basically was getting no where.this was taking months,in the meentime i did not a lert centrelink,as far as i was concerned my son was still enrolled at that school.apparently centrelink checks up on kids at school,to make sure they are still there,so when they rang about my son they were told he left there in april.so now we have a $2500,bill with centrelink.i have tried to appeal,and the first one was regected,because the school says he left of his own free will.so apparenyly they are going to believe the school and not me.evan though i have proof of all the different departments i had to go through to find the right people to talk to about getting my son back at school.then to make matters worse,centrelinks credit department rings me asking when they are getting ther money.i tell the woman (and i use the term loosely)that my son doesnt earn any money,he is not back at school yet,and doesnt recieve centrelink,so hows he going to pay?she sugest he get a job for the school holidays,i tell her,i dont want him to,as i want him to try and catch up on work he has missed while expelled.she then tells me she is sending this dept. to the dept. collction agency.if something isnt worked out by the next day.so people,just to let you know,these as___oles,love playing god,and in the blink of an eye can destroy a young mans credit rating,once it goes to a collection agency,you cant evan get a credit card,and these days to build up a good credit rating,you have to lend money from banks and pay it back and pay bills on time.CENTRELINK anesassary evil.

Wow. They must love the sound of $4000 debts as I got one too. My husband was unable to work due to illness. I had already done our income estimates for that year. It totalled around $54000 pa. As he was unable to work for most of that year our income was actually only $26000. At tax time we received a bill for $4500. I would have thought we would only get a bill if we estimated less than we earnt. We estimated more than we earnt so we got a debt with them. Go figure.