Post by Banjo on Jan 22, 2011 9:51:17 GMT 7
Some letters and emails I've sent since I started this board.
Occasionally I become a little flippant, but never rude.
Dear Prime Minister,
congratulations on your recent return to government.
I am the administrator of an internet message board for Disability Support Pensioners who like to travel and spend time outside of Australia.
I've calculated that each and every one of us save the taxpayer in excess of three thousand dollars a year by not claiming Centrelink rent, phone and pharmaceutical allowances.
While we do this unselfishly and without thought of personal reward, if you could see your way clear to allowing us less restricted portability, namely not having to return to Australia quite so often, you would find us eternally grateful.
Banjo
To Civil Liberties Australia.
Message: I'd like to draw your attention to the following news article.
Welfare loophole allows disability pensioners to go on permanent vacation
A LOOPHOLE in welfare laws has been allowing hundreds of disability support pensioners to use their pensions to travel overseas most of the year and keep second homes in popular South-East Asian holiday destinations.
The jet-setting lives of 776 disability support pensioners were discovered by a joint Centrelink and Department of Immigration investigation, which found many were taking up to nine overseas trips a year.
The study uncovered 154 gold-class frequent flyers who spent all but eight weeks a year overseas. Of these, 71 spent less than a month in Australia and there were eight described as fly-in, fly-out pensioners who spent only a week a year in Australia.
The loophole allows disability support pensioners to keep claiming the pension, which is now more than $700 a fortnight, if they return to Australia once every 13 weeks.
OK... this will seem like a fairly minor issue but does it really matter what pensioners spend their money on? I'm 61, unemployable and they want to tell me where I can and can't go?
Regards
Banjo
Occasionally I become a little flippant, but never rude.
Dear Prime Minister,
congratulations on your recent return to government.
I am the administrator of an internet message board for Disability Support Pensioners who like to travel and spend time outside of Australia.
I've calculated that each and every one of us save the taxpayer in excess of three thousand dollars a year by not claiming Centrelink rent, phone and pharmaceutical allowances.
While we do this unselfishly and without thought of personal reward, if you could see your way clear to allowing us less restricted portability, namely not having to return to Australia quite so often, you would find us eternally grateful.
Banjo
To Civil Liberties Australia.
Message: I'd like to draw your attention to the following news article.
Welfare loophole allows disability pensioners to go on permanent vacation
A LOOPHOLE in welfare laws has been allowing hundreds of disability support pensioners to use their pensions to travel overseas most of the year and keep second homes in popular South-East Asian holiday destinations.
The jet-setting lives of 776 disability support pensioners were discovered by a joint Centrelink and Department of Immigration investigation, which found many were taking up to nine overseas trips a year.
The study uncovered 154 gold-class frequent flyers who spent all but eight weeks a year overseas. Of these, 71 spent less than a month in Australia and there were eight described as fly-in, fly-out pensioners who spent only a week a year in Australia.
The loophole allows disability support pensioners to keep claiming the pension, which is now more than $700 a fortnight, if they return to Australia once every 13 weeks.
OK... this will seem like a fairly minor issue but does it really matter what pensioners spend their money on? I'm 61, unemployable and they want to tell me where I can and can't go?
Regards
Banjo