The introduction of an increase for single pensioners and pensioner couples has attracted extensive media coverage. Yet neither the Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd. nor the Minister for Human Services, Chris Bowen, nor the Minister for Community Services, Jenny Macklin, seem to have been interviewed about the stringent new Centrelink rules for old folks.
In a recent letter to pensioners, titled “Changes to your pension”, signed by both Jenny Macklin and Chris Bowen, recipients were urged to carefully study the fact sheets enclosed. No wonder. That material reveals, for instance, that aged pensioners who supplement their pensions with paid employment, even occasionally, must now report their circumstances to Centrelink every fortnight, irrespective of whether they (or their partners) actually secured any paid employment during the previous 14 days.
The penalty for non compliance will be the cessation of their pension payments.
As a result of age discrimination in the workplace and the current tough economic times, most pensioners consider themselves extremely lucky if they are able to supplement their pension with even occasional paid casual work. Yet those lucky enough to get regular work will certainly be better off under the new rules. For example, a pensioner couple will be able to earn a joint total of about $500 a fortnight without any reduction in their pensions.
It is stressed, in the information despatched with the Macklin/Bowen letter, that no one will be worse off under the new rules. Yet it seems that pensioners who happen to be seasonal workers will, in fact, be worse off if they receive a lump sum payment at the end of their engagement. This group includes the many pensioners who help to supervise Higher School Certificate and university exams each year. If a pensioner couple is lucky enough to get 12 or 14 days work, they may end up with a joint earnings that total nearly $3,000.
Under the old rules, they were permitted to earn that one-off payment without penalty. Yet a Centrelink supervisor advised on Friday that under the new rules, which purport “to provide an incentive for senior workers to be in the workforce”, pensioners who receive such a large, albeit one-off, lump sum payment will have their next fortnightly joint pension payment cancelled.
That information was confirmed by another supervisor who also reported that although casual workers, including pensioners who help to conduct exams, often have to wait a month or six weeks to be paid, they must report their anticipated earnings at the end of the fortnight in which they earned that money. This is irrespective of the fact that pensioners may have their pensions cancelled for at least a fortnight because of those anticipated earnings. So unless they have savings, they will find themselves with nothing to live on for several weeks.
A close reading of the 10 pages of facts about the new rules suggests that by July next year adjustments will have been introduced that may remedy perceived anomalies. In the meantime, pensioners with “complex financial arrangements” are advised that they can request to talk to “a financial information service officer” who might help them explore a new “transitional rate until they are no longer worse off under the new rules.”
Yet on Friday Centrelink staff seemed unable to provide cogent information about any transitional arrangements.
So imagine the confusion and hardship the new rules may well cause many elderly people. Surely Jenny Macklin and Chris Bowen should be asked about the plight of, say, a pensioner who through illness or some other calamity wakes up on pension day to find their payment has been suspended because they forgot to contact Centrelink to report that neither they nor their partner (if they are lucky enough to have one) earned anything in the previous fortnight?
The consensus is that there are few joys in being old, but one of them used to be a comparative lack of bureaucratic intrusion into daily life.
These days, increasingly in Australia, it seems pensioners are burdened with endless inquiries, including multi-page questionaires demanding detailed information about the slightest change in their financial and personal circumstances.
I live in a “prescribed area” unter the NTER (Northern Territory Emergency Response). All Centrelink recipients in Yuendumu are under “Income Management” alledgedly to stop the “rivers of grog” and protect the women and children against paedophyle rings and the “barons of porn” (as Tony Abbott dubbed them) and to ensure they get “healthy food at reasonable prices”. Suffice it to say that all this is reminiscent of the Weapons of Mass Destruction (and Children Overboard for that matter). The UN’s special rapporteur on indigenous rights, James Anaya, that visited Yuendumu said “the NT intervention measures, including compulsory income management and blanket bans on alcohol, are ‘overtly discriminatory’ and further stigmatise already stigmatised communities”.
So now all other Australian pensioners have joined those on prescribed areas in being subjected to bureaucratic overkill by what has to be one of the most inefficient government agencies.
I won’t bore you with the details but a friend of mine received a letter from Centrelink advising him that his Income Management account had a balance of $0.80 and to contact Centrelink to discuss how he should spend this money. Good on Centrelink for preventing my friend from spending his money on grog.
While politicians and ex-politicians entitlements continue unabated (surely it is time for the gold card scheme for ex-pollies to tbe abolished?) those who have made a long and decent contribution to our society are made to feel guilty for the small pensio they receive. Champion effort from a party that USED to look after the workers and the pensioners.
As a woman who’s been reliant on CentreLink(and before that Social Security, or Social inSecurity as I called it) I could write a book on my dealings. Just to give a hint of the frustrations I suffered. When I first applied for benefit, I’d been on Workers Comp but it was cut off. My employer(Dept of Education,NSW)had advised me not to return to work, and my doctor had furnished me with a certificate for light duties – Soc.Security were not going to pay me unemployment benefit as I had not been ‘formally sacked’, nor would they pay sickness benefit as I had the light duties certificate – so I was going to have to survive on nothing??
I’d just left an abusive marriage and was a mess-it took 2 days on the phone to both State & Federal members for sanity to prevail.
After the first few times of being embarrassed at checkouts, as the money wasn’t in my account, I got to check it before I went shopping. They once cut my money off as although I’d applied for disability and sickness, they were on 2 separate forms in 2 separate areas, and they cut of payment due to ‘lack of furnishing them with appropriate medical certificates’?Uhm, do you think you could photocopy said certificates with other forms???
They once wrote to me, 2 pages in total – page 1 in one envelope, and yes, you guessed it, page 2 in another. I still have them! I was once threatened with legal action as I hadn’t paid back a certain amount from my awarded full workers comp weekly payments. The insisted it was a lump sum, I insisted, that it was only back money – it was only the accumulation of weekly amounts that were not paid to me during that time – not a lump sum as in a negligence case for example.
I was correct, they were wrong.When they finally relented and agreed with me, it was just an ‘ooooppss’ moment; no apology, no formal letter to assure me, that I wouldn’t end up in court.
There are many others I can assure you. My advice is; never hand over any papers(proof of income, doctors reports etc) ANYTHING until the original is photocopied and your copy is dated and initialled. Always keep your Centrelink statements, letters etc. Don’t rely on the person on the phone – there’s no guarantee, that when you hang up they’ll make the necessary notes on your file. I’ve heard of this situation via talkback re women on sole benefits, or women whose husband/partner also worked etc. Ask for confirmation, via email if you have a computer – it’s a relatively new avenue of keeping tabs on your file. Try to see the same person at your Centrelink office, but I realize this is not possible for country and/or remote areas. Don’t put up with patronizing and insulting attitudes – they demand respect, no violence, language etc – as they’re entitled, and so are you! If you feel upset and unsettled, take a friend/partner/family member with you for support, but make sure they speak to you, not your younger son/daughter – often happens with women?????
Once, I was so frustrated by their latest act that when my youngest son rang me, (just to say hello)I was a mess. He came with me the next morning, with letter etc,and as he looked like a big ‘copper’ it had an effect. I pride myself on being able to cope with just about anything, but this was the last straw! Read everything they send, then read it again, keep them in one convenient spot, and if all else fails, ask to speak/see someone in charge. Also keep bank or credit union statements re proof of income. Federal members are there to help constituents – don’t hesitate to call on them too!
A few years ago I overheard my (since deceased) father on the phone to Centrelink. My mother had died leaving behind a $2,000 debt to Centrelink. This debt arose due to Centrelink’s incompetence when they overpaid her by not accounting for her Dutch superannuation. Centrelink then proceeded to try and extract this debt from my father whose only asset was the house he lived in.
My dad told the lady at the other end of the phone that if she saw an old man playing the harmonica in front of her office with a hat in front of him that would be him.
Centrallink is the most inefficient of all bureaucracies ever. They treat every pensioner as a potential freud and the people working there very often play gods. Many people employed in the Centrelink are arrogant, ignorant and have no P/R training. But they are entitled to make mistakes, send some stupid letters and bloody forms three times by mistake, refuse to answer questions and send people to ‘go to the website’ regardless whether pensioners have access to the computer or not. Calling Centrelink for info is a waste of time; one can get crazy with pre-recorded messages . The system is abusive, undemocratic and terribly authoritarian. Centrelink is entitled to offend and harass people whose health is very often ailing and who cannot cope with all all these small prints in the forms designed by some mente capti..
Australia does not have a pension system at all. It’s the ‘government handouts’.
From all OECD countries our system looks bleak.
The consecutive governments are prepared to pay the whole army of not necessary qualified people in Centrelink at the expense of the elderly who have paid very hefty taxes all their lives. I think, two categories of under- citizens in Australia are students and pensioners. Middle class is vanishing.
Poor country of Australia cannot afford looking after its population other than politicians and big corporates, preferably foreign…
As a matter of fact, we have a classic caste system in which different classes of people are treated differently. Politicians, even those poor ones, are entitled to all perks ever until their ….death. For all others, the system cannot wait to have them dead.
Following caste system of India ?????????? Or we have spent too much money on foreign wars?