A second Robodebt class action settlement has been reached for $475 million

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Nathan Knox is Robodebt victim and part of the class action. He and another victim appealed the first settlement which actually brought about this second-class action. He says today's result ends a difficult chapter in his life.

Transcript

00:00Myself and others, you know, we received these unjust debts, unfortunately some of those

00:06people took to the extremes of taking their own life as a result of these debts and I

00:10think the outcomes from the first class action and nevertheless the Royal Commission, I think

00:16it's clear that there was obviously more evidence that came to light and I think this second

00:21class action kind of puts an end to this, closes this chapter and holds that final level

00:28of accountability to the government, a government that was in action.

00:33Yeah and so take us through your circumstances many years ago, what government support were

00:38you receiving and what was the first indication you got that the government was chasing you

00:43for a supposed debt?

00:45Yeah look my situation, I was on JobSeeker, I was a young adult who's just moved out of

00:50home and you know got a job and trying to make ends meet and do all those responsible things

00:55that you're trying to do. For myself, I had received no notification from the government,

01:02my first notification was a debt collector basically sending me letters and contacting me by mobile

01:08phone basically informing me that I had a debt. As you can appreciate, I didn't know what to

01:15do, obviously I don't want to owe anyone money and especially didn't want to owe the government

01:19money. So basically the situation I had was that I had a debt collector that was obviously

01:25on behalf of the government who was chasing me and at the time felt a bit bullied but

01:29basically I was put on a payment scheme that regardless of what other expenses and that

01:34I had that to live, it was basically you earn X, you need to pay Y and even really at the

01:41end of, for a short period of time, I basically was at a negative. I was, I didn't earn enough

01:45to actually cover the expenses. So for me it was, it really pushed me to a breaking point

01:52for myself and that was my experience.

01:55And so how much was this supposed debt and were you just going, what the?

02:00Yeah, exactly right. So look, my debt was $15,000 roughly around then and for a young adult,

02:07you know, that, you know, who's moved out of home, it's a substantial amount of money.

02:11Um, you know, not to everyone depending where you are in your life, but that point in time,

02:16it's, um, it's, it was a great amount. And look, there's people out there who, you know,

02:21again, suffered, um, and unfortunately took extreme extremes over a far lesser amount.

02:27And, um, yeah, look, it's, um, at that point in my life, you know, it was detrimental.

02:33And as I just mentioned before, you know, I was trying to juggle and how do I balance all

02:38this? And it was a lot of anguish that was, to be honest, wasn't warranted. Um, at the

02:43time, um, at the time I just tried to manage and, you know, went down this pathway to obviously

02:48repay those. Um, but, um, yeah, it was, it was definitely, it put a, put a grip on my

02:54livelihood for, for a period of time that, um, yeah, I just, I didn't know what to turn

02:58to and just had to kind of, you just felt like you were just, you had to pay this back.

03:02You didn't, who were you to go back and say that, you know, it was incorrect.

03:06And yeah, you've given us an idea there of the, the trauma that you were going through

03:10as a result of this. Did, did people around you, your friends and family notice the pressure

03:15as well?

03:16No, not potentially. No, I kept it quite private, which, um, you know, not everyone

03:20did. Um, but look, there was, there was a one moment there where I had a, you know, um,

03:26could have made a very split dumb decision that I, you know, I wouldn't be here anymore.

03:30And, um, you know, it's something that, um, you know, I didn't do, but there was again,

03:35that split moment where you make that choice and, you know, cause I, you don't, you don't

03:39know what, what to do. You just, you're kind of pushed between a rock and a hard place and

03:43just trying to make it work.

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