Fight back against Centrelink debt claims
Have you received a debt letter
from Centrelink? FraudStop makes it quick and easy to
appeal an automated debt claim against you.
All you need to do is enter a few details,
explain why you want to appeal the debt claim against you, and hit send - FraudStop does the rest:
- Compiles a formal request for review, prints it off,
and sends it by post to Centrelink.
- Asks your local MP for assistance -
we're hearing this can really speed up the process.
- Sends a complaint to Social Services Minister Anne
Ruston -- she's responsible for this automated debt letter debacle.
- Submits an FOI request for your Centrelink
file -- so that you will have all the information you need to fight back.
The whole process should take less than five minutes -- which is better than waiting on
the phone for hours with no result.
Why did we build FraudStop?
Over 200,000 automated debt
letters have been issued by Centrelink since they started their automated debt recovery system,
and by their own admission, at least 20% of these are incorrect. That means a huge 40,000 false
debt letters have been given to people.
Because of the enormous number of mistakes being made,
legal experts
have recommended that people consider submitting their debt for review, even if they're not sure if the
debt amount is correct.
We have developed this website to
make sure you can appeal a debt claim as quickly and easily as possible.
Some very important legal information:
Disclaimer: GetUp is concerned
about the overwhelming number of errors in debt letters currently being issued by Centrelink.
We
have put together this website using information that
is freely available online, to make your appeal easier. Nothing in this website should be taken as legal
advice, however, before proceeding, you should consider whether this process is right for you. If you're
uncertain,
get in touch with lawyers who can provide you
with advice personal to you.
By way of a guide, we recommend you seek legal advice
if:
- Centrelink has alleged that you have knowingly misled them about your income or accepted
payments that you shouldn't have;
- you wish to provide further information to Centrelink which may help your case; or
- you are in great financial hardship and require a review urgently.
Before proceeding, note that very occasionally, a review may end up in you receiving an
even higher debt. The likelihood of you receiving a better outcome far outweighs a worse outcome, but we
can't rule this out.
If this occurs, we recommend you get in touch
with Legal Aid, who may recommend you seek another appeal to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.
Currently paused
Your details
Privacy: We require some
personal information from you for the purposes of submitting a review to Centrelink, but we will not use
it for any other purpose and will destroy it as soon as
reasonably practical after submitting your review.
Your side of the story
We will not use or disclose your personal information for any purpose
other than that provided in this website.
Personal Circumstances
We will not use or disclose your personal information for any purpose
other than that provided in this website.
One last thing...
Do you want to take this further? Before we
submit your review to Centrelink, you can choose to also do as many of the following actions as you like
to make even more noise and increase your
chances of a favourable outcome.
Please note that to do this we have to pass on some of your
personal details, including your name, address, email and phone number.
Please wait - processing...
We're generating your appeal letter and associated
documents and sending them to Centrelink.
This could take take up to a minute. Please do not
quit this page or refresh your broswer while your request is processing.
Success!
We've put your appeal letter together and posted it to
Centrelink.
You should receive an email from us (GetUp!) confirming that all
documents have been correctly compiled and submitted.
If you do not
receive this email within 24 hours, please contact us (email [email protected]) immediately as it means your request for a
review may not have been correctly submitted.
What happens from here?
- If you haven't heard from Centrelink three weeks after submitting your review on this
website, call Centrelink or go to an office in person to make sure they have received your appeal. Ask
for a receipt number, which you should
then use for all future communication with them. If they haven't received
your appeal after three weeks, it is important you get in
touch with Legal Aid and get further advice.
- Currently, ARO reviews are taking somewhere between 2 to 6 months to resolve. You should hear
from CentreLink at some point during this time, either because they are seeking further clarification
from you, or hopefully to tell
you they have reviewed your debt and reduced it, or cancelled it altogether. There is also a small chance that it could be increased,
however.
- Hopefully, that's it. However if you are unhappy with
the ARO decision, you have the right to appeal their decision to the Social Services and Child Support
division of the Administrative
Appeals Tribunal, which lawyers can help you with.
In
the meantime, can you help share this service with other people who have received debt letters
too?
Sorry. There was an error.
We're really sorry but we were unable to generate your
appeal due to some kind of glitch in our system.
We're not sure what went wrong, but
we've been alerted to the issue and we'll
look into it.
In the meantime, you can start over from the beginning, check all your information is
correct, and try to resubmit.
Start
OVER from the beginning
The government has conceded that the system it used to calculate and
issue robodebts is unlawful.
It has paused all further robodebts, and has commenced a proactive review of all outstanding debts.
These are the steps that campaigners and advocates from across the political spectrum have
sought for years.
While the government review is underway, and until further details of the new system are revealed - we
are temporarily pausing FraudStop.
If you are concerned about an outstanding debt, please send us an email at [email protected].