Firstly, Debt Counsellors, as stipulated in the National Credit Act (NCA), are not allowed to manage their clients' money. Rather, the NCA requires that a Payment Distribution Company (PDA) handles the collection and distribution of funds of Debt Review clients.
The three main reasons why the statements differ are:
Payments are processed at different periods. The PDA will distribute the funds to the creditors, and a couple of days after that the creditor applies the payment to the account.
The PDA statements include the Debt Review fees (link to that FAQ), whereas the creditor statements do not.
Creditor statements include the service fee whereas the PDA statements do not include creditor service fees.
Therefore, PDA statements should be seen as estimates. But, if a client is concerned about the difference in balance they should contact their Debt Counsellor to check if there are any discrepancies or issues that need to be addressed.