centrelink scam

my history with centrelink (once social security) is a long and annoying one, yet i'm not even the worst of any story out there to be told.

it begins with a teen pregnancy while still attending school. back then poor students got money from CL to help pay for books and tuition. as poor as i was i kept having to prove i was pore enough and argue with them that i needed help.

before the baby was born i applied for sickness benefits because i could not work and needed money. CL were annoyed that i wouldn't go out and get a job despite being 6 months pregnant and no one would employ me, plus being too sick (all day morning sickness and weighing a mere 39kg) to work.

i had to line up in a queue for 30+ mins, pregnant and fatigued (no sitting or I'd loose my spot in the queue). get to the counter and the person tells me i need X documentation to apply. i go home and get the form and return to CL another day, and queue again for a very long time. get to the counter and i'm told that form isn't enough, i also need X documentation. i'm pissed off but go home and return to repeat the process. my wait in the queue is 45mins on my feet, heavily pregnant (now they have seats and let people take a number). when i get to the counter i am told that my 2 pieces of documentation are not enough, i need a third document.

by this stage i am ropeable! i raise my voice and ask the person if they're kidding, then further ask why i wasn't told in the very beginning that i need 3 types of documentation!!!! couldn't help but feel it was some deliberate ploy staff are told to partake in to delay payments!? i made the assistant promise me this was the last additional thing i needed so i would not have to return and line up in a queue for 45mins again!

after the baby was born i went on single mother's benefits to help support and raise my baby. i could not work because i had no one to mind my baby and could not afford to pay anyone.

i'm on the single parent pension for some years and couldn't even consider getting into a relationship because CL expected whomever i dated to support me - so they could stop pay me my pension. what a stupid situation to put men in! having to support some new girl they've started dating. horrendous. no wonder so many single mums lie about being in a relationship. CL could at least consider waiting until a relationship is serious before expecting some poor bloke to support the woman he's dating.

cut to some years later, i start work, save money and buy a house. i work for years paying taxes.  my pay is only 22K p/a and CL don't offer mortgage assistance they way they would if i were renting so my child and i struggle along on my meager wage and we live in near poverty - yet lucky enough to have a roof over our head. when i quit that job (due to working with dreadful men) and apply for CL.  CL consider my house an asset (of course) but not my child, and pay me very little.  my son and i lived off $220 per week - it's better than nothing t least.

i find another job, better paying than the last yet still not quite enough to live flush. CL pay me childcare benefits for low income earners to help put my child through school and feed him. i eventually get into a relationship that became serious and the man moves in.

he has come from interstate and is unemployed while he searches for a job. he applies for unemployment benefits while he searches and CL consider his application. he mentions living with me on his application and this causes CL to STOP my childcare benefits because i now have a man who can support me (even though he's unemployed and has applied for benefits himself).

months and months later his application is rejected because i earn too much (45K a year for me, my son and new partner). i talk to CL about all those weeks/months of missed childcare benefit payments from them and am told i had 14 days (only) to fight their removal of my benefits (14 days from the time payments were stopped). which i couldn't have fought because the boyfriends' benefits were still being processed... they don't back pay even though his claim in rejected.

so i lose hundreds of dollars in payments from CL (they paid around $120 per week childcare benefits) and lose my childcare benefits status which entitles me to a childcare fee rebate (for after school care while I worked) and i don't get a cent of it back. at all! ever!

some time later i work as a temp which means my earnings are not set and i have to guesstimate my potential earnings for the year in order to receive my childcare benefits. one year my guesstimation is incorrect and CL send me a bill for $700 that i owe them for their over payment because i earned more than i said i might.

this is but one story of the hell that is CL and the way they treat those who seek their help.

have a CL story of your own? share below.