Politics Centrelink

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hamohawk1 said:
Just saw turnball quoted as saying 'we want people to see centrelink as an incentive measure to get a job or disincentive to get employment' well f*** me if anybody on centrelink (besides a very very few) do not feel or are not trying their heart out to get employment id be surprised. Its no a sustainable amount to live on, the government is absolutely deluded.
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It's just a scare tactic to keep people in line.

Current affair runs a por bashing story every couple of weeks.

The terrorist

The dole bludger

Minimum wage.

This is why your life is hard, not billionaires, multinationals and foreign investors.
 
DT2000 said:
I heard a radical theory to alleviate the stresses of the entire Welfare system on a radio show over the holidays. In a nutshell the host basically said this: The Gov to pay every Australian citizen over the age of 18 - $25k per year for their entire life. Then scrap all of the other benefit schemes (Newstart, Carer's, AuStudy, Parental and so on).

This would (in his opinion) greatly reduce the numbers of people applying for the same vacancies. The genuinely unemployable people would be able to get by without resorting to crime (in most cases). Uni students could afford to contribute more to their fees at the time of their study thus reducing their final debts. People wouldn't be encouraged to have children with the intention of claiming more in benefits because those benefits would no longer exist. If you do lose your job, you have enough to survive on whilst you are looking for another one. Those "bludgers" out there that just simply don;t want to work that much and are happy living with their parents, can do so without clogging up the job seeking facilities because they are forced to look for jobs they don't want and won't stay in if they get them.

There would of course be an "opt out" option and possibly a cut off threshold if say a person began earning over $100k p/a - example only.

When I first heard it I lol'd but then the more I have been thinking about it, the more sense it is begging to make.

BTW, I'm still in High School and plan on going straight to Uni.
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This is where I believe the world will be within 100 years. It could be 20 years away with the speed of technology and it may be 200 years away if we can't get over our protectionist policies, resistance to harmonising the world through trade and property right treaties, war and restrictions on the movement of labour.

It will certainly address economic and social issues caused by poverty but we will still have to resolve the issue of participation, respect and the sense of purpose.

It truly is an exciting time where we are working towards this end goal.
 
hamohawk1 said:
Just saw turnball quoted as saying 'we want people to see centrelink as an incentive measure to get a job or disincentive to get employment' well f*** me if anybody on centrelink (besides a very very few) do not feel or are not trying their heart out to get employment id be surprised. Its no a sustainable amount to live on, the government is absolutely deluded.
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This is why I think politics should be banned from the media and politicians identity unknown. Democracy should be about policy and delivered in reports setting out the policy, how it will be achieved, when it will be achieved, a budget and gantt chart.

I think we would all like to see, especially those finding themselves locked out of work, an opportunity to gain useful employment and participation. Participation, purpose, respect are key needs for individuals and society alike.

Turnbull needs to focus more on how he is going to address participation issues in society than the disincentives to work, cost cutting etc

14 second sound bites are dangerous and a presidential system offensive to a real democracy. Unfortunately the electorate gets the politics we deserve.
 

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Dixie Normous said:
I imagine the only thing more depressing than going in there would be working there.
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I worked for Centrelink and for a time Child Support for 6 years....

I am not sure if it has been mentioned in this thread but half the battle is they are understaffed. The workload gets bigger but the staff numbers smaller.
 
Just sat down to wait for my first interaction with them in years and only the 2nd time in my life.

Started my wait at 11:15am. I'll see how it goes.

I heard on the radio on the way in that they're on a go slow today with regards to a dispute about a pay rise.

I may have picked a bad day.

I'll give a debrief at some stage after I'm done.

I hit them with a curve ball straight up when I said I was after assistance with lodging an application for Education Assistance for Remote and Isolated students. I don't think they' get much of that in Wonthaggi
 
Herne Hill Hammer said:
Just sat down to wait for my first interaction with them in years and only the 2nd time in my life.

Started my wait at 11:15am. I'll see how it goes.

I heard on the radio on the way in that they're on a go slow today with regards to a dispute about a pay rise.

I may have picked a bad day.

I'll give a debrief at some stage after I'm done.

I hit them with a curve ball straight up when I said I was after assistance with lodging an application for Education Assistance for Remote and Isolated students. I don't think they' get much of that in Wonthaggi
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The question is, will anyone notice?
 
Pretty straight forward visit. I sat with the bloke for 15 minutes, answered a couple of questions. He sent my claim off and I left. 45 minutes all up.

Had a 'here we go' moment early on but got it straightened out pretty quick.

Him : If she's going to school in Victoria and living with her grandparents then she's not isolated.

Me : I could send her to boarding school in Perth at a school with 1,000 other students and she's isolated. There are no secondary school options where we live.

Him : Fair enough. We don't get any of these applications through here.

He was good about it.

The question from here is, will they accept the application? I've already had an email confirmation from them some months prior that grandparents can be classed as private boarding.
 
As a society, we make a collective decision about how we want the society to function based on the needs and desires of the vast majority. There is always going to be a small minority that struggle to function within that structure and how we address those that don't fit the system says more about us than it does those people who do not fit in.

What is the worst the government can do, stop paying someone who is unemployed or struggles to function in our society? The average cost of a homeless person is roughly double that of the current unemployment benefit through the strain on public services like police, hospitals, courts, prisons, etc.

The money we waste in terms of social security management and the payment of social security support is enough to easily provide a blanket payment to everyone who isn't middle class or higher if we eliminate the waste and rorting of the system that is going on at present. People who are below the poverty line make sacrifices because of their low income and their long-term health is the first casualty of being poor, this inflicts horrific long-term costs to our society as a whole and future generations.

We need to change the way we see people, the more you penny pinch and think you are or would do benefit to our society, the more severe the opposite effect you actually have. The best thing we can do for the poor and the poorly educated is break the cycle of poverty so there is a significantly lower drain in the future.

Will some people prefer to live on benefits than work. Absolutely. What is the alternative if you do not want to pay them and they wont work? They rely on crime to get by. Would you rather pay someone $15k a year or pay $300k a year to keep them in a low security prison as a best case scenario or have them steal inflicting an even larger burden on society? There is no end-game where penny pinching creates a better society or one that is cheaper to run.

If you don't want a totalitarian state that shoots people who do not work, there is going to be a significant cost to maintain the society we want. We can do that humanely or we can choose not to, but it is a reflection on us because we have the power, the poor or those disenfranchised within our society have no power at all.
 
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Howard Littlejohn said:
I've been caught up in this myself, forced to pay "back" $6700 that my bank records show I never got paid in the first place.
But the debt collectors get sent in before an appeal can be lodged, so had to pay to keep a clean credit rating and hope they will pay it back eventually.

http://www.themercury.com.au/news/t...r/news-story/b5dc61f3864ba2564b03d33fd83f9743
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It's pretty unsurprising. I got asked to pay back 1500 from my youth allowance a few months ago because I had been overpaid and it was entirely an oversight on their own part. I have no issue returning money that I wasn't supposed to have in the first place, but it's frustrating that the incident revolved around their own inability to monitor payments.
 

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herculez09 said:
It's pretty unsurprising. I got asked to pay back 1500 from my youth allowance a few months ago because I had been overpaid and it was entirely an oversight on their own part. I have no issue returning money that I wasn't supposed to have in the first place, but it's frustrating that the incident revolved around their own inability to monitor payments.
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I would have no problem with it, if they had paid me in the period in question. I got a bit under $500 over that time, for a Christmas period where the office I got a job at was shut down and I was still eligible.
As it is, it cleaned me out of the account I live off and I might have to forego bonus interest earned in another account to pay rent next week - not to mention lawyers if it goes as far the AAT, which it looks like doing.
 
Howard Littlejohn said:
I've been caught up in this myself, forced to pay "back" $6700 that my bank records show I never got paid in the first place.
But the debt collectors get sent in before an appeal can be lodged, so had to pay to keep a clean credit rating and hope they will pay it back eventually.

http://www.themercury.com.au/news/t...r/news-story/b5dc61f3864ba2564b03d33fd83f9743
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How did you go with this? I got a text saying I had to resolve a matter by the 26th or I'd be lumped with a fine. In 2012 I was unemployed for a couple months in between jobs. They are saying I didn't declare my income even though I wasn't receiving income while on centrelink and stopped receiving it before my first payment with the new job. Is this a mistake on their behalf or did I need to tell them my income after I was cut off from centrelink?
 
Dazb86 said:
How did you go with this? I got a text saying I had to resolve a matter by the 26th or I'd be lumped with a fine. In 2012 I was unemployed for a couple months in between jobs. They are saying I didn't declare my income even though I wasn't receiving income while on centrelink and stopped receiving it before my first payment with the new job. Is this a mistake on their behalf or did I need to tell them my income after I was cut off from centrelink?
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So far, they have adjusted it and its now at about $3k. Of course that was after I paid the $6.7k to keep the debt collectors away.
I will be asking for a manual review when I have double checked all the bank statements for the period to shoiw I got no money to repay, and then asking for a manual review. I suspect it will go to the AAT though.

I'm not sure how much faith to put in one artyicle by one whistleblower to The Guardian. Established media seems to be ignoring it, which is to be expected from some who love nothing more than spreading that everyone in Centrelink is rorting it.
https://www.theguardian.com/austral...ion-of-debts-in-welfare-crackdown-are-genuine

edit: In your case, it seems the most common thing. Centrelink get figuers from the ATO. These are annual. Nothing from the ATO can tell Centrelink when the income was earned, so they seem to be "annualising" the income. Even if you declared all the income in the last few months of the year, adding up to the ATO figure; and didn't get paid by Centrelink in that time, the system seems to assume you got income across the whole year and therefore had some fortnights of undeclared income.
 
Has anyone got any stories of trying to claim back the money they paid centrelink under duress or getting out of paying the fines altogether? i paid my fine after waiting on the phone for over an hour and then got told by the operator that there is no point reviewing the payment as it was a fruitless exercise so i bowed under their pressure and paid them, now after reading all info about how flawed the system is im wondering if theres anyway to recoup the money i paid?
 
big_bazza said:
Has anyone got any stories of trying to claim back the money they paid centrelink under duress or getting out of paying the fines altogether? i paid my fine after waiting on the phone for over an hour and then got told by the operator that there is no point reviewing the payment as it was a fruitless exercise so i bowed under their pressure and paid them, now after reading all info about how flawed the system is im wondering if theres anyway to recoup the money i paid?
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I haven't paid a thing yet. Will present with emails and paper once I get it. If I don't they can take it $10 a fortnight
 
GreyCrow said:
I haven't paid a thing yet. Will present with emails and paper once I get it. If I don't they can take it $10 a fortnight
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Yeah i wish i did the same thing now, i rushed into it as i didnt want another debt hanging over my head after finally dealing with AAMI and then Dunn and Bradstreet in september/october this year and the stress that caused me i thought i was better off to just pay the centrelink debt to avoid anymore un-needed anxiety, especially after they said you have 21 days to pay until debt collectors get involved. Boy was i wrong!
 
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