Hi LD
I feel your pain as a I read your post, and it brings tears to my eyes. Not only for the personal suffering they have created within your marriage, but that these bastards are still allowed to stuff us around while we slip into worse and worse circumstances.
Firstly, I do not know what part of the country you have come home to, but I do have a spare bedroom. You are welcome to use it, I am in Murwillumbah, just south of the Gold Coast.
Linking you up with a Job Service provider, does take time. You cannot sign up without first being referred by C/L, and that alone can take a couple of months.
My son has waited on occassion, only to be rejected anyway due to his 'disabillity'. They really don't want anyone too sick to work on their books, unless they are a specialised disability service, because they get paid to just 'manage our disability' whether we work or not.
A job agency will be unwilling to part with some of their profit, by sending you on a course, if you are too unwell to ultimately get employed, and provide them with their $3,000 bonus for same.
As far as I can see, officially you are no longer in a maritial situation. You are separated from your spouse. Therefore they should be paying you at the single rate of DSP until the day your partner arrives here.
Also, since you have moved back to Australia, you are now officially a resident and should be able to brush all of those obstacles aside.
However, we all know too well that once they are determined to harrass, hurt and humiliate you, no amount of rules restricting them from doing so, can protect you from their attitude and being given the run-around.
I would try welfare rights, as Banjo suggested, and hope that you don't encounter a toothless tiger, as some people have with them. Others have achieved their outcome, through WR.
You could try the Commonwealth Ombudsman's office as well, but I found that their employees are all in the pockets of Centrelink anway. They merely collect statistics of how many complaints are lodged, without doing anything about them, except a couple of high profile ones every now and again to pretend they earn their money.
Now that you are back in Australia, stay off the phone. Go to your local office, and start asking to speak to managers. If you get nowhere, try your MP.
An ARO used to only have 28 days in which to review a case. I am not sure if that is still the case, but yours must be getting close to it. Start sitting in your local office, demanding to speak to one, due to the low amount of your payments creating urgency for it to be recitifed. No amount of back pay helps, once you have had to endure the stress of trying to survive without enough money to do so.
You are correct though in your assumption that we are being fed b/s. There are no special jobs we can do, and therefore we will never be directed to them. Especially with so many unemployed able-bodied people. That idea might have worked in a different economic climate, but in the one we have been in for the past few years, it is not realistic.
Also their b/s about helping people out of homeless and into new facilities, funded by the billions Ruddy gave them, is just that. A waste of tax payers money, which was spent on themselves and their associated agencies, with very little flowing through to those in need.
Even when going into the office, from here on in, ask for a receipt number, to demonstrate how many times you have gone in there to ask for your payments to be fixed up and/or to ask for ARO review.
There is not a lot of advice I can give. When you sit back and take their crap, they just pile more upon you. When you stand up and argue for your rights with them, they pile more crap upon you. Until you have solid grounds and the means to take them to the AAT or a court, they don't stop playing games easily.
Good luck LD. I hope your wife arrives soon. Being processed by one of our wonderful government departments, you can't even hope that that will run smoothly.
Feel free to pm me if you want to discuss anything in private.
Try Gumtree to look for work. They sometimes have one-off ones, to prune trees for an elderly lady, etc. You can narrow down the search to your local area. It is also a good place to look for share accommodation, or cheap granny flats.
tweedheads.gumtree.com.au/(Sorry it won't let me get a link that has not been narrowed down to search Tweed. Click on the change region box once you get to the site, and select the area where you are.)