Sylvia was forced to cease work to care for her elderly mother.

She completed an application form for a Carer Payment and Carer Allowance under the supervision of a Centrelink officer. This form was incorrectly filled in to state that the client did pay private rent and provided details of this, however omitted to answer some of the questions regarding this due to a misreading of the form.

Neither the Centrelink officer advising her, nor the officer entering the information into the system noticed this error. This led to the client not receiving her entitlement to Rent Assistance for more than 18 months.

The BRQ was able to help her successfully apply for back-pay under the Compensation for Detriment caused by Defective Administration Scheme. This meant that, while there was no longer any legal entitlement to the monies that should have been paid, the client received the same amount to compensate for Centrelink’s error.