Post by spaceyone on Feb 25, 2012 9:10:13 GMT 7
Further to my post the other day about Centrelink not paying my son this week, I will explain how they did it.
While he has been covered by medical exemptions, he has only had to 'report' once every two or three months. Leading up to a 'report' an appointment is made for a face to face interview, and forms sent to us for him to complete and lodge, or to 'report' online.
So, we attended an interview on Monday last week at Murwillumbah branch. It was obvious to me that the man who served us was playing some kind of game. Pointing out things we already knew, while hiding something.
My son's payments had been cancelled, and then re-instated. The man assured us that he would be paid normally this week, and even turned the screen to show us the figures. With hindsight, it becomes apparent why he did not receive a total figure for the payment, he just showed us the components of it and said that should add to be about the same amount as he always gets.
I guess it didn't total the payments, because he never sent the information on the screen to be recorded and finalised.
Basically, my son needed to report this week. We had received no forms in the mail to do this, no correspondence advising us of same, and the man who conducted the interview did not tell us.
So payday came and went, without any money appearing in his bank account. For some reason, I also could not sign into his online bank account to check, and waited til late at night to go to the atm.
When there was still no money there, we signed into his online C/L account. There was no statement on the front page advising that he had to report. I clicked on the reporting tab, and there I finally found it. He was supposed to report the day before his payday.
We processed the form online, but since it was after 9pm, it was not going to be processed that day. That meant it was processed by them on Friday, and we will not receive the money until Monday.
I have put in an online complaint, and will also go to that branch on Monday and make a complaint to the Manager there. The same officer had done the same thing to me last year. He has served me twice only, and the first experience was similar to this one.
I had lodged a rent certificate with him, after moving out of temporary arrangements into my granny flat shed. He processed the rent certificate, and turned the screen to show me what my next payment would be, now that it would include rent assistance. When payday came, the was no extra money. I had to make a trip to town, and force them to find the form and process it properly. I then received what I was owed days later, and after having to stuff my new landlord around with rent.
Had it not been for having the same experience with this C/L employee once before, I might have written it off as human error. I also noticed the next day, when we checked my son's account online, that suddenly the reporting information was back on the main page, where it is supposed to be.
Disgusted once again, by the spiteful games Centrelink employees play with me and my family, just because I appealed an illegal decision they made almost two years ago.
The way we manage our payments is this; when I receive my DSP payment, I pay two weeks rent in advance for myself and my son, pay any bills, and buy groceries and petrol. I am usually out of money, by the time his payment comes the next week. We then live off that, until my next payment. So it was not just him who was inconvenienced, it is both of us who would have starved for 4 days, except for the kind act of a friend, who had given me some extra money this week.
Shame on you Centrelink, your job is to provide welfare payments for those who are not working, not to deprive them of money for your own amusements.
Wake up to yourselves, you have become an embarrassment to all public servants.
While he has been covered by medical exemptions, he has only had to 'report' once every two or three months. Leading up to a 'report' an appointment is made for a face to face interview, and forms sent to us for him to complete and lodge, or to 'report' online.
So, we attended an interview on Monday last week at Murwillumbah branch. It was obvious to me that the man who served us was playing some kind of game. Pointing out things we already knew, while hiding something.
My son's payments had been cancelled, and then re-instated. The man assured us that he would be paid normally this week, and even turned the screen to show us the figures. With hindsight, it becomes apparent why he did not receive a total figure for the payment, he just showed us the components of it and said that should add to be about the same amount as he always gets.
I guess it didn't total the payments, because he never sent the information on the screen to be recorded and finalised.
Basically, my son needed to report this week. We had received no forms in the mail to do this, no correspondence advising us of same, and the man who conducted the interview did not tell us.
So payday came and went, without any money appearing in his bank account. For some reason, I also could not sign into his online bank account to check, and waited til late at night to go to the atm.
When there was still no money there, we signed into his online C/L account. There was no statement on the front page advising that he had to report. I clicked on the reporting tab, and there I finally found it. He was supposed to report the day before his payday.
We processed the form online, but since it was after 9pm, it was not going to be processed that day. That meant it was processed by them on Friday, and we will not receive the money until Monday.
I have put in an online complaint, and will also go to that branch on Monday and make a complaint to the Manager there. The same officer had done the same thing to me last year. He has served me twice only, and the first experience was similar to this one.
I had lodged a rent certificate with him, after moving out of temporary arrangements into my granny flat shed. He processed the rent certificate, and turned the screen to show me what my next payment would be, now that it would include rent assistance. When payday came, the was no extra money. I had to make a trip to town, and force them to find the form and process it properly. I then received what I was owed days later, and after having to stuff my new landlord around with rent.
Had it not been for having the same experience with this C/L employee once before, I might have written it off as human error. I also noticed the next day, when we checked my son's account online, that suddenly the reporting information was back on the main page, where it is supposed to be.
Disgusted once again, by the spiteful games Centrelink employees play with me and my family, just because I appealed an illegal decision they made almost two years ago.
The way we manage our payments is this; when I receive my DSP payment, I pay two weeks rent in advance for myself and my son, pay any bills, and buy groceries and petrol. I am usually out of money, by the time his payment comes the next week. We then live off that, until my next payment. So it was not just him who was inconvenienced, it is both of us who would have starved for 4 days, except for the kind act of a friend, who had given me some extra money this week.
Shame on you Centrelink, your job is to provide welfare payments for those who are not working, not to deprive them of money for your own amusements.
Wake up to yourselves, you have become an embarrassment to all public servants.