Ms Yvonne O'Sullivan:

It is also beyond the stage where the overpayment arises but when the recovery takes place. A person is not able to challenge the amount up to that 15% whereby the Department can take back the money. It is unknown how the Department weighs a person's other expenses, which might be a debt or they might have a large family. How are general living expenses taken into consideration by the Department? There are also many cases at present which date back ten or 20 years, so having that evidence would be great-----