The Centrelink thread

So, I got kicked out of home and they cut my hours at work...so i'm off to centrelink again.

I just love the 30 different channels just to do one thing. The 10 pages of paper work. The long waits....not that i'm hard done by. I appreciate what the government does for me. Its just a big bloody laugh thats all.

 

Yeah I was unemployed for three months while I was doing a part time B.A. I was genuinely searching that whole time.
They told me that according to the government, studying part time isn't studying.
So to put it this way: if while I was on the dole I was offered... say a full time job cleaning porta-loo's, and if I knocked that job back on the grounds that it would mean I would have to drop my studies, I would not get any more payments nor be allowed to apply for any payments untill I had been unemployed after having another job.
If you are on the dole you have to take any job offered to you, apply for ten jobs a week and you cannot apply for just one field of employment (hospitality, retail, orderly etc).
So the fact that I was studying part time so that I could work, support myself and not go on Austudy meant nothing to them becuase they would rather me get some shithouse job a.s.a.p. and remain poor and uneducated.
Lucky for me I'm naturally a genius and didn't need the degree anyway!
Ha ha... take that Australian government

 

Mother fuckers. Aniother big pain in the arse. I tried to re-enrol in a B.A. three weeks too late and they wouldn't let me even though i knew people personally who had dropped out. I was still on the uni system from 3 years ago....fucking beuracracy.

 

i've been on the centrelink train through austudy. they are fuckers.
just console yourself with the knowledge that the system needs people like you to be unemployed to the tune of 5.5 % otherwise the whole system collapses. the backbone of todays society are the unemployed and fucked over because without them the economic system can't work.

 

So true. I can't believe the majority of westerners are too comfortable with their nice fridges and cars to see that while the people down the bottom might well be fuck ups...theres no real way that everyone can get a fair go. I'm intelligent and level headed enough to fight my way up the capitalist ladder, and i have before, only enough to live comfortably of course. But i swear, in all my dealings with centrelink...i see the same people stuck in a cycle of misery and poverty there year after year picking up the cheques...and as soon as they work their way up (if they do) that sends another poor fucker back down the line.

 

as i say to most people in this situation - you need to get a trade
a trade will help you keep your head above the water and when things fuck up you can go to the door turn the lights off and walk out to somewhere better. it is a means to an end. of course that isn't the end of the story, the situation is dynamic, a trade that is good one day might be worth jack shit the next -so you have to keep training. the best trade is plumbing, unfortunately it is a guild, you cannot as far as i'm aware even attend the tafe course unless you are an apprentice.
anyway...the economy of a nation is a managed chaos, that is with perhaps hundreds of thousands of people roaming the streets out of work, no money and a heap of time on their hands, trouble finds them. the government trys to manage this chaos by locking them up but they end up back on the streets - why? because they need them out there, maybe they'll find jesus and keep looking for a job and thats whats important - they keep looking. when the inflation rate goes up the government sends the boys round to get them into work. i could go on, god, i start to bore myself with this spiel sometimes. so - you need a trade.

 

You might find this hard to believe but a long time ago i did a pre-vocational course, and some of the basic trade/tool classes I worked my arse off and passed, but they would only give me a provisional pass because quote; "Sorry mate, you're just shit at using tools"......and the guy was right. I went back to school and graduated with a high TER, I'm a hapless nerd and ill never be a tradesman

 

yeah, centrelink is shit. I practically livew out of home, pay all my uni fees and books, food bills, medical bills and transport, study full time and work when I'm not studying, but apparently, because I earn fuck all money I dont qualify to get austudy....

Hello, for fucks sake, I am too poor to get welfare, what's with that!?

 

Hey Retro, do they take into account what your parents earn? That could be the case there buddy cos they do means-test what your parents earn for Youth Allownace.

I for one get Austudy (because I am somewhere over 25) and had no problems making my claims for some stupid reason. They generally leave you alone if you are a full time University Student.

I hate it when you have to go to certain Centerlink Agencies to sort uot all the shit really.

 

RetroGroove Grrl the point is not that you're too poor....it's that your parent/s aren't poor at all.

Anyway. Centrelink rant. I did a four year science degree and not once did i claim any benefit from centrelink. I move states and re-enrol at another university to do further studies in a different field and decide to claim youth allowance. Yes i did 'forget' to tell them that i went from full time to part time part way through. And yes, the bastards were on to me. I refused to pay the 'debt' on the grounds of "why the hell should i" (remember 4 whole years doing long hours in a shitty job whilst also studying full time and getting nothing from the government in return). Centrelink doesn't like that approach. Grand Total = an annoying little debt that i had a few years with a collection agency + a $25,000 HECS debt.
Sweet, eh?

Next Centrelink appearance registering for Newstart - a process that took 3 seperate visits to the centrelink office (and as Lying in a Field said pages and pages of forms) and hours of waiting. The result this time was one official day of an allowance before i got a job. The difference with me is that in no way do I appreciate what the government does for me.

Next time i won't even bother. It's what they want.

 

^^^

I completely dig. I applied for an intent to claim about a fortnight ago, i've only got $60 in the bank and I still haven't received one cent. Unless this thing gets finished i'll have to borrow money off my parents to pay the rent. Funny, i've almost got a job too.

If I was on heroin and had NO family, i'd be fucked right now. No wonder people never make it off the streets, they have to deal with centrelink. I didn't choose for my workplace to completely cut my hours to "save money"...I work hard.

I can't get the points of idenitifcation required because i've moved house, so they are going to send me a letter which will arrive in 5 days, 5 fucking days! 1 have to get 6 members of my family to sign, plus a letter from work. Why the FUCK can't thwey just go off my old address that was only changed last week. It would serve exactly the same purpose and I couldn't scam the system. Stupid rigid fucking beuracratic rules is all it is.

So you can't rely on your workplace, because most of the jobs available today are casual and you can pretty much get cut out at a moments notice. But you can't really rely on the saftey net to help victims of this occurence either.

After this experience I'm definitely going back to finish my degree. But WAIT, is it really worth it, they've made it all so fucking expensive. I should just settle with selling the big issue or something.

 

lol, the Big Issue, thats funny.

Yes they did base oit on my parents income. My single parents income. Which really only just tops the cut off point, and after tax, doesnt even come near it.

its not like she gives me the money to pay for myself. Grrrr.

 

Yeah, thats messed up, I went through the same thing at Uni which is why i quit. Good on you for sticking it out. Once you're 21 i believe you're considered independent, or you will be anyway if you've been out of school for 2 years and have earnt 17,000 or more.

 

its 25 actually. According to centrelink youre not really independent untill youre 25

 

Theres a nasty truth waiting around every corner in that place.

 

university once upon a time was free
the people who profitted from this grew rich once sprung from this font and banned it forever from the realms of the poor and "unworthy".

 

Centafink?

 

I hated centrelink for a long time.. while i was trying to prove my independence.. anyhow.. i finally proved it.. and i get youth allowance.. go me.

 

you'd be better off getting an apprenticeship than buggering around with centrelink, there are heaps of companies just dying to pay you money to work for them and pay for your education. forget centrelink, its a blind alley unless you're using it to pay your way through year 10 or hsc - plus you live like a pauper on it unless you're popping out kids/ or a professional dole bludger.

 

Centrelink is good if you really need a holiday.