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Bills in for excess benefits
From AAP
01feb02
FAMILIES who must pay back family benefit can have it taken out of their 2001-02 payment, Family and Community Services Minister Amanda Vanstone has said.
Around 150,000 families have received bills for excess family payments after underestimating their income for 2000-01.
The first $1,000 of the debt was waived in the lead-up to last July's Aston by-election, but the bill has arrived for the rest.
Families who overestimated their 2000-01 incomes have already received cheques to cover the shortfall in the family payment.
One woman told ABC radio she notified Centrelink three times of changes to her family's income.
"I had underestimated our income by $350, however we still incurred this overpayment of $1,400," she said.
Opposition family and community services spokesman Wayne Swan said MPs had been inundated with hundreds of angry calls.
"The problem here is the system, but the Government wants to blame the families," he told ABC Radio.
"The system that is in place is out of touch with the work life and the lifestyle of Australian families in the 21st century."
He has suggested basing payments on the previous year's income or allowing a 10 per cent margin for error.
But Senator Vanstone dismissed these ideas as less fair than the current system, now in its second year.
"I believe this new system has had some teething problems," she told ABC radio.
"But as families adjust to it, they will appreciate that they can either have an overpayment and take that out of next year's entitlement, or they can arrange to get underpaid and they have a top-up at the end of the year in a way they were not able to do in the past."