Couch surfing 50-year-old says welfare agency told her she wasn’t in financial hardship

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

A Melbourne woman battling homelessness says her entire $3,500 tax return was swiped by Centrelink last month, despite the fact she disputes the alleged robodebt.

But when Sue Prgic, 50, complained to the agency that the money had been taken without her knowledge, she said staff had asked to know what she would do with the cash if it were returned.

“I really didn’t think that’s any of their business,” she told Guardian Australia. “I was like, ‘Well, I’m homeless, I gather I’d use it to find a home to live in.’”

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Prgic has been couch surfing since she lost the unit she shared with her 18-year-old daughter in regional Victoria this year after falling into rental arrears.

She is the latest to tell her story as Labor and the Greens ramp up their efforts to have the government abolish the robodebt scheme, which is to be examined by a Senate inquiry and a federal court challenge.

In total, Prgic is facing about $30,000 in alleged debts – including about $20,000 likely to have been raised through the robodebt scheme. Those debts, for parenting payment and Newstart, were accrued because Centrelink claims she did not report her earnings correctly.

She disputed owing the money and she said she had been given no evidence for how the debts were calculated.

But she was most frustrated that the agency had taken her tax return without telling her. She had planned to use the money to get into a new home.

“They’ve taken $3,500 of my tax return ... They’ve taken $560 from my family tax benefit,” she said. “They’ve taken $4,000 in the last few weeks. If you have $3,500 that’s pretty much a bond and your month’s rent to get into a place.”

At first, they had told her she couldn’t get the money back as she was “not in financial hardship”, Prgic added.

“I said … ‘I’ve had to relocate back to Melbourne and I’m couch surfing and I’m homeless at the moment. You can’t get more financial hardship than that, can you?’ [They said] ‘Oh, well, what would you use the money for if [we] gave you back the tax return?’

“And they basically told me they are going to reassess it to see if I get that back … Now I’ve heard nothing from them.”

Prgic’s tax return was taken because she was cut off income support in May after a dispute with her job service provider.

She said she had been forced to reapply for Newstart, which helps supplement the income she earns from casual work at a local rubbish tip.

Centrelink says it does not issue garnishee notices against people now receiving payments but, according to the agency, Prgic’s Newstart claim was accepted one day after her tax return was garnisheed.

“It’s basically, you are asking me to prove that I don’t owe it,” she said. “I’d like some proof that I actually do.

Hank Jongen, a spokesman for the Department of Human Services, said the department was reviewing the case. “We take the wellbeing of our customers very seriously,” he said.

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“Our expectation is any person who identifies as homeless is treated sensitively and receives appropriate support. We are reviewing this case to ensure any special circumstances are taken into account.”

Jongen said the agency only took action to garnish tax returns when “other attempts to recover money owed have failed”. “We notify the person with a letter prior to any action occurring,” he said.

But Prgic is among a number of welfare debt recipients who have told Guardian Australia they were not notified before their tax return was taken. “If they only returned part of my tax return, I wouldn’t be going through this,” she said.

Last week the opposition launched a website for people to tell their robodebt stories. An existing website, Not My Debt, was set up by grassroots campaigners when the debt recovery scandal broke.

Do you know more? luke.henriques-gomes@theguardian.com