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Bureaucracy - rant
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<blockquote data-quote="Marguerite" data-source="post: 166384" data-attributes="member: 1991"><p>UPDATE</p><p></p><p>I rang Centrelink yesterday (Monday) prepared to tell them how much difficult child 1 is being paid, according to information from his bank balance. But they didn't want tat because it's net, not gross. I was also given the unpleasant news that the treating doctor's report was NOT on file, nor was there any record of a Job Capacity Assessment having been done (it was given to him over the phone). They were very unhelpful and very unsympathetic. I was almost screaming at the woman - "You are discriminating against difficult child 1 by penalising him for something which is due to his disability." I also said I was a whisker away from going to the media. Then I rang my local MP again and left a message to say that the problem was worse - now vital records were missing from the file, which would only slow us down even more.</p><p></p><p>Today - Tuesday - I got some results. It seems one (or more) of my emails found its way to the right person. I also think my MP's staff were putting in the boot for us. I got an extremely apologetic phone call saying that difficult child 1's pension had been reinstated (with payment suspended, as I requested) and that is was very unfortunate that these problems should have happened. She did make it clear that in a fortnight's time, we MUST have his income details lodged or the pension gets cancelled again.</p><p></p><p>Plus - difficult child 1 is once more registered with the disability agency. So his caseworker from the agency is going to go in to his workplace for him and begin to sort out the mess, including getting the income information we need to call off the dogs.</p><p></p><p>Nothing was said about the major breach of confidentiality. I suspect the person who rang was desperately hoping I wouldn't bring it up. difficult child 1 wants blood over that, he wants compensation.</p><p></p><p>I also found out something else interesting (and very alarming) - whenever difficult child 1 has been over-paid (such as when they failed to stop payment of his pension even after we notified them of his income while working), he gets a bill to pay them back. And whenever they send someone a bill, it includes an added 10&#37; as a fine. I said I felt that was inappropriate, when it's not his mistake. I was told that when ever we're fined, we can appeal. I said that how would we know? We're just sent a bill, it's not itemised. Centrelink says, "you were overpaid, you ow $x," you pay it because to NOT pay it can get very nasty.</p><p></p><p>So I now have to draft another letter on difficult child 1's behalf, pointing out that he has NEVER incurred overpayment due to his own failures. I have asked for payment to be suspended when he has been earning - I think their failure to suspend payment should not incur a fine, on top of paying back the overpayment itself. Crikey, in a lot of places overpayment gets forgiven if it's not your doing. I mean, not even the bank does this! Does Centrelink pay us interest if their calculations are wrong and they don't pay us enough over the year? No. We're lucky if we ever find out.</p><p></p><p>What a mess. But at least we're out of the Catch 22 loop at last. For the next two weeks.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Marguerite, post: 166384, member: 1991"] UPDATE I rang Centrelink yesterday (Monday) prepared to tell them how much difficult child 1 is being paid, according to information from his bank balance. But they didn't want tat because it's net, not gross. I was also given the unpleasant news that the treating doctor's report was NOT on file, nor was there any record of a Job Capacity Assessment having been done (it was given to him over the phone). They were very unhelpful and very unsympathetic. I was almost screaming at the woman - "You are discriminating against difficult child 1 by penalising him for something which is due to his disability." I also said I was a whisker away from going to the media. Then I rang my local MP again and left a message to say that the problem was worse - now vital records were missing from the file, which would only slow us down even more. Today - Tuesday - I got some results. It seems one (or more) of my emails found its way to the right person. I also think my MP's staff were putting in the boot for us. I got an extremely apologetic phone call saying that difficult child 1's pension had been reinstated (with payment suspended, as I requested) and that is was very unfortunate that these problems should have happened. She did make it clear that in a fortnight's time, we MUST have his income details lodged or the pension gets cancelled again. Plus - difficult child 1 is once more registered with the disability agency. So his caseworker from the agency is going to go in to his workplace for him and begin to sort out the mess, including getting the income information we need to call off the dogs. Nothing was said about the major breach of confidentiality. I suspect the person who rang was desperately hoping I wouldn't bring it up. difficult child 1 wants blood over that, he wants compensation. I also found out something else interesting (and very alarming) - whenever difficult child 1 has been over-paid (such as when they failed to stop payment of his pension even after we notified them of his income while working), he gets a bill to pay them back. And whenever they send someone a bill, it includes an added 10% as a fine. I said I felt that was inappropriate, when it's not his mistake. I was told that when ever we're fined, we can appeal. I said that how would we know? We're just sent a bill, it's not itemised. Centrelink says, "you were overpaid, you ow $x," you pay it because to NOT pay it can get very nasty. So I now have to draft another letter on difficult child 1's behalf, pointing out that he has NEVER incurred overpayment due to his own failures. I have asked for payment to be suspended when he has been earning - I think their failure to suspend payment should not incur a fine, on top of paying back the overpayment itself. Crikey, in a lot of places overpayment gets forgiven if it's not your doing. I mean, not even the bank does this! Does Centrelink pay us interest if their calculations are wrong and they don't pay us enough over the year? No. We're lucky if we ever find out. What a mess. But at least we're out of the Catch 22 loop at last. For the next two weeks. [/QUOTE]
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