A NSW Riverina woman who was told she owed $40,000 to Centrelink has said she is disappointed that the robodebt saga will not get its day in court after a $112 million settlement deal.
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Danielle George, of Wagga Wagga, was told two years ago to pay back Centrelink after the agency used her retail wages over Christmas to estimate her entire year's earnings.
"There's no real resolution to find out what went wrong or who was behind it or why it happened," she said.
"People won't get their day in court to tell how badly or greatly or vastly it impacted their lives."
Centrelink later reduced Miss George's $40,000 debt but insisted she still pay back $3000 after she was unable to get copies of years-old payslips from her former employer.
Miss George said she had not been given a confirmation from Centrelink that she would get back the $2000 she had already repaid.
"I've read that there are over 40,000 people who are in the same boat, who have had their debt become part of the class action but are stuck in limbo with no real idea if they will ever see their money," she said.
The federal government agreed on Monday to pay compensation to approximately 400,000 people in a class action lawsuit by the Gordon Legal firm over the automated system that was designed to check if Centrelink clients had been overpaid.
Gordon Legal said the government has not accepted legal liability but will also repay more than $720 million and drop claims for $398 million in debts that were "invalidly asserted".
Miss George said the original debt notice for $40,000 had a big impact on her.
"I was in a vulnerable place, I was unemployed, I was going through health and family issues," she said.
"I was really stressed out at the time, trying everything I could to get work but not getting anywhere and then to have one more blow, that I owed money when I was spending everything on rent and food."
In other news
Government Services Minister Stuart Robert said welfare agencies stopped using averaged income checks 12 months ago and had already started repayments.
"Now I appreciate the Gordon Legal will seek to have its costs come out of [the settlement]. But I think we'd all want the vast bulk of those funds to be returned to Australians and those involved," he said.