Not that they’ll assist you in any way to do that. And the spiral down continues… You could live in a caravan… ahhhh, yep. Sell my house, put my stuff in storage, and live in a caravan. Centrelink would count my new bulging bank account as an asset and income and immediately stop all payments. In a few years I’d have spent all my money and lost everything I ever owned… oh, except for the stuff still in storage of course. Happy days. “Move” they say… Right… It’s cheaper to live in the country. Or maybe, interstate. Hell… Why not move overseas… to India perhaps. Where my job went. Moving is an expensive exercise. Perhaps “they” should try it. To move their life, say 4 hours from the “big smoke,” it might cost them… $3000 dollars. Ok, and if they have to put things in storage, another $200-$300 a month. Let’s see, on Newstart, at approximately $255 a week, where you have usually nothing left over at the end of the week… it’s easy to scrape that together for a move. Right?
I never got around to asking them why I had to fill out the same details twice… Or why I couldn’t have just done it on the computer and why they didn’t just print themselves off a copy. Hell, it was all in my CV anyway. I was then assigned a “Case” Officer and the first question I asked my “Case” Officer was… How are you going to help me get a job? From her reaction… I guess not many people ask that question. She told me, they have computers… so did I. She told me, they have newspapers… I read them all everyday – on my computer. She told me, they can help me write a resume/cv… I already have several and cover letters – also all on my computer. At my age, if I can’t write both, I probably shouldn’t have a job. How ironic is that? To cut a long story short, they never sent me to a job interview, or found any sort of job for me. I had to attend monthly for an interview and prove I was looking for a job. Apparently in Stream 1 they don’t help you find a job. Mind you, when I graduated to Stream 2 nothing much changed at all. It was at this time I was desperately running out of money in my bank account and had to sell my Apartment, the strata fees were killing me. The mortgage wasn’t much better. So they transferred me to an NGO that was closer to where my new residence would be. At the new NGO, I filled out some forms and had a short interview. They had computers and newspapers and wanted to see my CV. I showed them one. They were reasonably impressed. One thing I noticed was the office was filled with lots of young people, mostly looking for apprenticeships or their first job. Many doing in-house courses about how to write CVs and how to dress for interviews. I was beginning to think… maybe this wasn’t quite the right place for me after all. Eventually they transferred me to another NGO… The spiral down to the gutter continued.
What happens when you’ve been taking supplements to help keep you healthy and you go onto Newstart? Well… you quickly find when they run out, you can’t afford to replace them. After all… they’re just a supplement right? It may take: a week, a month, a year… yet slowly, but surely, your health deteriorates. Those health issues the supplements were helping to keep at bay, are no longer on the back burner. A few other little things happen when you are on Newstart. If you had private health insurance, you don’t anymore and the Dentist is one of the first people you stop going to unless it is a major issue. You also pray your local GP Bulk Bills. Meanwhile, back in the interview… You are asked why haven’t you seen a specialist about your ailments… On Newstart? A Specialist? Your chronic ailments suddenly are supposed to be curable; after all you aren’t blind or missing a limb right? Well not yet at least. And it would be nice to keep it that way. Oh and yes… you do have the right to appeal. Only you may die before they get around to it. Mobility Allowance… One thing that gets recommended when you fail to qualify for the Disability Pension, is the Mobility Allowance. It’s kind of like a default for those; older, frail and arthritic.
single principal carer granted activity test exemption for either: foster caring non-parent relative caring under a court order home schooling distance education large family $713.20 Look at that. Now try to imagine living on it. Newstart, has gone up since I first was able to claim it. A whole $18. Now don’t start thinking that’s good. Just think how very bad it was before. It still isn’t good. Pollies on Newstart Part 1… I remember the last Government’s reaction, when various lobby groups at a Government inquiry into the Newstart Rate, said the size of welfare handouts should be set by a tribunal just like Politicians' wages. Now wouldn’t that be good. I’ve seen their pay rises. Bill Shorten was Employment Minister at the time. He’s had a pay-rise since then as Opposition Leader, but at the time his wage was about 25 times, that of Newstart. He did admit at the time, that the unemployment benefit was tough to live on. But… apparently… so was his wage. “I think it would be very difficult to live on $249 (a week), I've got a young family, I find it hard enough to make ends meet currently and I've got a job.” In the words of Pauline Hanson… Please Explain?
“They say things come in threes. Well, first there was the divorce, then the job went south, and now I’ve had to sell my home. I just couldn’t keep up the payments without a job.” “Centrelink is the same frustrating, slow, place it has always been apparently. The lines are massive, people everywhere, understaffed, a very stressful process. No wonder they have those warning signs as you go in.” “Employers aren’t supposed to discriminate about age but they do. About someone being made redundant, but they do. About someone being unemployed, but they do. You get so tired of explaining things to employers and recruitment agencies. In the end it’s easier just to lie.” “After 2 years I’ve finally got a job, I lied to get it. But what choice do you have? Change of career, lower wage, but beggars can’t be choosers right? It definitely opened my eyes to how fortunate people are to have full-time work. I don’t think anyone should take a job for granted these days, if you have one, be sure you hold onto it at all costs.” “Unemployment, if it can happen to me it can happen to anyone.” Judy (30 – NSW) Judy thinks the Unemployed like herself have sat back and taken it long enough. Government after government neglect the unemployed and the system is failing those trapped in it. “$35 a day on Newstart. That’s a joke. Eventually we’ll all end up on the Disability Pension.” “That $900 stimulus bonus could have been better targeted couldn’t it. I wouldn’t have wasted it on a new TV.” “They call us ‘job snobs.’ They really have no idea, hard to be a snob when the jobs don’t exist.” Pollies on Newstart Part 2… I love it when Politicians go on the Dole. Sorry… Newstart. Some do it, just to prove to us they know what it’s like being unemployed and what it’s like trying to live on $255 a week / $36 a day. I know people that spend $36 a lunch.