The Good, the Bad and the Ugly - 3/3
Really ugly
I check my mail yesterday [Thursday] and find a letter, dated 27 Feb [also the date of my last payment], that tells me my Newstart allowance has been cancelled as of Nov '98 and my Health Care Card has been cancelled as of Sept '96. I call the 130000 number [on hold for only about 10 minutes] and after much phoning by person at the other end, am told that my allowance has indeed been cancelled but that I need to go into the office to talk to someone to get more details. Got a phone call from a female at said office this morning that confirmed the cancellation of said allowance but followed up with "can't explain more because the lady responsible is out of the ofice until Monday'. She wanted to make an appointment for me to go and talk to someone NEXT Friday [being 5 days after I'm originally supposed to have received my new normal fortnightly payment]. My intention is to just rock up [preferably with PSP Case Manager in tow] on Monday and demand explanations.
Two particularly confusing things [from my point of view] - One, why is Braddon office doing this to me when I have been dealing with the Belconnen office of late? Two - Why the discrepency in the cancellation dates of the allowance and the Health Care Card? The woman at the Braddon office that called this morning did confirm that the '96 & '98 dates for the cancellations was indeed correct but couldn't explain them. Need out-of-office lady to do that!
What all this means is that if I am really not eligible for the extra money from C'link - I have to find a way to live(?) on $50 a week because after I've paid my rent, that is all I will have. No more phone [mobile will be strictly for incoming or emergency calls], no more ISP/internet, limiting travel anywhere drastically [no more trips to Sydney to see my shrink definately and even travelling to Doctors here in Canberra will be cut back], no new clothing [not even 'new' second-hand stuff], no more anything that is not vital food. Haven't figured out how I'd be paying for my share of the electricity yet.
Needless to add really but the savings plan I had going for rainy days etc. will be straight out the window too.
Will have to get family tree photos scanned, cleaned up and uploaded this weekend too. Once they are uploaded, Dad can fiddle with my family tree stuff to his hearts content but I might not be able to again for a long time.