Queensland Health loose with money while waiting lists lengthen

Dietician is overpaid $30,000 but Queensland Health says keep it

• by: Des Houghton
• From: The Courier-Mail
• March 06, 2012 12:00AM

QUEENSLAND Health has overpaid Judith Wilcox by more than $30,000. Source: The Courier-Mail

QUEENSLAND Health has overpaid Judith Wilcox by more than $30,000 - and they don't want it back.

"I've been begging them to take it but they won't," said Mrs Wilcox, 68, a dietician, who retired in September last year.

"They told me the computer refuses to take it back, and no, they won't override it because it would make the system vulnerable to fraud. Mrs Wilcox said she complained so often she was appointed a case manager.But the case manager tells her there is nothing she can do.
The bizarre episode highlights the ongoing embarrassment for the State Government in the payroll debacle that left thousands of nurses and doctors without pay in the past two years. The repair bill has so far topped $219 million but Queensland Health acknowledges it is still not perfect.

Mrs Wilcox said her troubles began when she received $35,859. "I thought, My God," she said. "They only owed me around $1000. I keep telling them it is not my money and they say it is. It belongs to someone else, not me."

 

She believes she may have been paid her final salary and long-service leave twice."I'm a little bit stressed about it to be frank. The state has so much debt it is absurd."In December last year Queensland Health said it was owed $75 million in overpayments. The department said yesterday a case manager would discuss options with Mrs Wilcox."Queensland Health has not sought to recover any overpayment at this stage as the former employee has asked for an audit of her entitlements against her pay, and one is being conducted," said Lyn Rowland, acting deputy Director-General of Human Resource Services.
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