Many years ago, our elderly client, ‘Sue’, took a severely disabled child into her home and then continued to care for her for decades.
Sue received some financial support from a state government-funded agency to cover the child’s care needs. Having not questioned the amount she was given, Sue was pleased to receive a payment of $100,000 arrears owed to her. When Centrelink heard about this arrears payment, they raised a debt of $60,000.
BRQ’s caseworker demonstrated that Centrelink had calculated the debt incorrectly and also argued there were “special circumstances” relating to the debt, enabling part of it to be waived.
We were successful in having the debt reduced to a much more manageable $9,000, thereby greatly reducing our elderly client’s financial and emotional stress.