Social Security/ Center link/ dept of human service or whatever name they are on this week

by zeb 2 Replies latest jw friends

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  zeb

  This large Australian govt dept is the one that pays the pensions to the aged, the broken, the invalids, the unemployed. They are running a campaign to claim back 'overpayment' from the least able to resist,and in recently revealed cases even the deceased.
  

  No media org or politician will take up the challenge of naming the authors of this insidious action.
  

  If the dept with all its resources overpays and that is a big IF then that is their problem to deal with not screw the hapless, the downtrodden and the aged all in all the defenceless.

  Pensioners are now living in fear they will be sent the dreaded letter to say 'pay up'. Some people have challenged the amounts claimed and had the amounts 'owed' reduced considerably.
  

  Would you have all your bank statements and financial histories going back years?
  
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  Listener

  Last year we needed to assist someone who had received a letter asking them to substantiate their payments received four years ago.
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  sir82

  Well that's pretty crazy - "we screwed up, so now you have to pay us to rectify our mistake".

  Seems like an enormous political liability.

  Here in the US, Social Security is sometimes referred to as the "3rd rail" - to touch it is instant political death.

  It needs reform, as it will not be sufficiently funded within "X" years - but no one, on either end of the political spectrum, dares to even mention it.