Centrelink's threats to Kim, which mirror those made to tens of thousands of other Australians, included seizing her assets and barring her from travelling overseas. The tactics used by the Department of Human Services in its debt-recovery scheme are set to land the department in court, with a former chief Crown prosecutor planning to challenge their legal basis in the Federal Court. Centrelink's letter to Kim in December. The department insists it is on solid legal ground, despite its concession to a recent Senate estimates inquiry that more than 70,000 debts had been reduced or wiped entirely. It was mid-December 2018 when Kim got the first letter from Centrelink. She was caring for her six-month-old daughter and was on maternity leave.

Loading "I recently applied for paid parental leave. When they updated my details, somebody obviously un-ticked a box," she said. "Then my son disappeared – they thought he didn't exist. It was bizarre." After spending hours on the phone over several days with Centrelink officials, Kim finally found solace when the agency admitted making the error. "A woman finally spoke to me and said 'oh we see his birth certificate'. And I said 'of course you do, he was born, he is alive, he goes to school'," said Kim.

The admission of error didn't bring an end to the affair. Centrelink called Kim again around Christmas to let her know they still hadn't got to the bottom of how the mistake had been made. More than 70,000 Centrelink-issued debts have been reduced or wiped completely. Credit:Erin Jonasson "I couldn't believe what I was hearing – it was so obvious what had occurred," said Kim. Kim was about to travel overseas with her partner. She knew if debt notices were issued while she was away, she would not be able to contest them, despite Centrelink having already acknowledged the error.

Loading So Kim offered to pay the debt while the matter was being resolved, in an effort to preserve her credit rating. "I was told not to worry about the debt, that they'd sort it out," said Kim. "I told them to only call me back when I arrived back in Australia in mid-January, which they agreed to." Then, while she was on holiday, Kim received a text message from debt collection company Probe Group demanding payment and threatening action against her.

On the other side of the world, Kim felt helpless and cheated after the department had assured her she wouldn’t be contacted while overseas, and she shouldn’t worry about her mistaken debt. "I thought it was a hoax initially … they told me they could seize my property and disallow me from travelling out of the country … I was so anxious," said Kim. Kim called the debt agency and explained the mistake that had occurred: her son was alive, and Centrelink had admitted the error. "They didn't care ... they're in the business of debt collection, not case management. This was Centrelink's fault," said Kim. "It was terrible … I just wanted it gone."

In a desperate bid to bring the saga to an end, Kim sent an email to federal Labor's spokesman for Human Services, Ed Husic, who contacted the department. "Literally two days later I got a call from the department saying 'we're so sorry, this was all an error' and the debt collectors stopped calling me," said Kim. "The department is meant to be serving the people. In reality it serves ministers … this only got resolved because someone higher up got involved and the department went into overdrive." Kim says it shouldn't have taken this step to end the episode.