No fixed address problem

[bunyip]

Hi l plan to sell my house and travel in AUstralia for a few months in which time l will have no address or fixed address ,l  dont have a family member that l can use to say l am living with them, l was wondering if anyone has any ideas of how to give centrelink an address 

[bear]

This is the short version of what ann has bunyip. How she went about it and whether she has a managed mailing address or simply has her mail forwarded by Australia Post from one stop to her next proposed stop; well that I don't know. Cheers 🐻

dspoverseas.proboards.com/thread/7673/word-traveller-blue-pension-card

[Denis-NFA]

Apr 28, 2024 12:23:21 GMT 7 bunyip said:

Hi l plan to sell my house and travel in AUstralia for a few months in which time l will have no address or fixed address ,l  dont have a family member that l can use to say l am living with them, l was wondering if anyone has any ideas of how to give centrelink an address 

bunyip

Somewhere early in my DSP journey I found out that someone in Centrelink had recorded my residential address as the Centrelink office where I had applied!

All the best in your travels.

[ann]

Hi Bunyip, I am a traveller on the age pension, also did this when on DSP, told Centrelink and they are fine with it. This is what I’ve done specifically.

I have paid a mail service and they receive my mail, scan it, email me the copy, I then decide if I want them to destroy or forward that mail to me at a local post office of my choice.

There are several commercial companies that offer this service, I use one called MBE, they are an international company. I pay them about $260 a year. I find the service exceptional, they are always very professional, they will let me know the mail arrives via the scanned email as I said and charge $3 for that, if they forward it to me they charge about $12 which is the Austpost fee, they don’t overcharge me at all. I’ve used three of their offices here in Australia so far. You can always pick mail up at their office if you want. They have a few offices around the place, they are a franchise and all work the same way. You deal with the one franchise of your choosing. Works perfectly for the mail.

Regarding Centrelink I phoned and told them I had a Campervan and was living in that and travelling around, they were fine with that. They NEED an address BUT it doesn’t have to be a dwelling, just an address so they can make contact. You can also claim rent assistance when staying in paid caravan parks.

My blue Centrelink card has the MBE address. When I phone Centrelink I call myself a traveller as thats what they advised me to say. I’ve never had a Centrelink problem, in fact they have always been keen to know where I’ve been.

You do need a dwelling address for vehicle registrations and licence, I use a mates address and keep paying Austpost annually to forward the mail to MBE. I’ve met two others who keep using their last rental address and make sure they keep the Austpost mail forwarding up to date.

Medicare, Doctors, banks have the MBE address.


I just reread your post. Maybe just keep the address of your current house and do the Austpost redirect before you leave. When you do a redirect Austpost send a paper letter to the house letting the occupier know there is a redirect from that address. They didn’t do that in the past but do now. So if you are going to use your home address then organise the redirect to a commercial place before you leave the house.

Makes your mail slow. I.e. Bank posts a letter to your old house, Austpost redirect that to your commercial mail company, they scan it and email it to you, you decide you want the hard copy and tell them to forward it to a post office of your choice. Not a quick option but a very efficient one for me. I get my bank cards etc all sent to MBE, never had a problem, they help run my life to be honest. They are all small businesses which I like.

Hope this makes sense. It’s easy and centrelink are totally fine with it.