A South Australian high school student has been left "begging and borrowing from friends" after Centrelink cut off her payment just before Christmas, according to NXT Member for Mayo Rebekha Sharkie.

Ms Sharkie said her office had been inundated with pleas from people who had recently received letters from Centrelink looking to recover debt.

The federal MP further investigated claims that a 19-year-old female student, who is living independently, was cut off from her welfare payment.

"With no warning at all ... just before Christmas she didn't receive her payment from Centrelink and she relies very heavily on that naturally just to eat and pay rent," Ms Sharkie said.

"She was told she was one of more than 15,000 students who have lost their payments in a glitch."

The teenager plans to return to school this year.

Ms Sharkie said Centrelink directed the teen to a student services line but they could not help because schools were on summer holidays.

"At the moment she is begging and borrowing from friends. And it's just not good enough."

Ms Sharkie said she received the girl's email at 4:30pm Thursday and late Friday afternoon tweeted they had "a win" with the student's payment reinstated.

She said the Centrelink debt notifications other people had been receiving looked "menacing" and following further investigation most people did not have to repay anything.

"This system at the moment is unworkable and I really believe Minister [Christian] Porter needs to have a good hard honest look at this system and realise it is actually there to support our most vulnerable Australians, it's not there to cause more harm," she said.

Department of Human Services general manager Hank Jongen said earlier this week the notifications were "not debt letters".

The new debt recovery scheme has produced nearly 170,000 notices of potential overpayment since July and the Government believes one in five people will not have to pay anything.