I don't think how many different parents are involved is relevant to the Centrelink situation.
BellyBelly Life Subscriber
I don't think how many different parents are involved is relevant to the Centrelink situation.
I 'knew' (and I use this term vaguely) this lady once.....she had 3 boys, lived with her defacto who has 2 boys, worked cash in hand, sold heaps on ebay and made a good $$$$ AND both claimed single parent payment. I asked her if she felt right doing it and she laughed at me and called me an idiot for not doing it.....so I got on the phone.
Yes i felt good picking doing it but I got angry when she told me that centrelink had come around and laughed with them about how odd it would be that her and her house mate could be in a relationshipyep...she got away with it, 3 times!
SO rather then get upset, listen to how well life was treating her and seeing what luxuries my hubby's hard earned tax dollar's were getting her...I walked away and felt the weight lifted from my shoulders
NO I may not be able to afford revlon mascara, a cartoon of cigarettes a week or rollups for my kids lunchboxes but then I have my dignity and a sense of pride
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A different spin on this.. Its a tough one for sure - I mean you want to do the right thing but....
If most of her kids are to different dads then technically - she is still a single parent. They aren't (all at least) her partners responsibility. The blended families rule is ridiculously ambiguous and usually ends up with whatever disadvantages both of you. I have always told them about changes in my circumstances, but it would hurt us. Such as my DHs maintenance payments. They included my kids for his expenses everywhere... but the Child Support Agency. What irked me the most about it was - even when we had our own kids, after child support the division of his remainding wage between him and our children was less per week than he was paying to his ex. This didn't include me at all despite me being on minimum PPP (thus him expected to support me) and definitely didnt include my older two.
And yes, we checked the way it worked out 3 times and questioned them twice about it. Apparently it was right. Just made no sense. More recently they told me I had to pay his child support out of my kids FTB because his business didnt make enough to pay him (he was unable to work fully waiting for carpel tunnel release surgery and centrelink didn't want to help out).
So no - knowing how horribly flawed the system is against step parents, I probably wouldn't say a word. The system says they have no responsibility to those children - so the system is saying she is still a single parent.
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honestly, its not your business. Leave it alone.
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its not just about the person whos fraudulently claiming this benefit, its about the the people who are missing out because of it.
Imagine what could be done with the $ if no one was defrauding the system - there would be a lot more to go around for those who need or qualify for it.
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blah blah blah
Last edited by cocobambino; July 8th, 2009 at 05:09 PM.
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If I think people are being dodgey, I always tell them that they had better not tell me anything about it or I will dobb them in (no, I am not very subtle). I doubt I would ever get around to dobbing anyone in, but by being upfront, it gives them an oppertunity to rectify things for themselves or at least not involve me. DH's family are the main culprits. It has helped that DH go a job with centrelink a few years ago, and although he is not with them now he is still in the public service - he gives them all the line that if he even suspects that anyone is doing something wrong, he HAS to dobb them in or he will get in trouble. Some have definitely righted things, and the others no not to mention anything about their benefits to us. Karma, will come back to bite some in the butt.
The funny thing is we are pretty sure that at least one of them would actually be entitled to more money if they told centrelink the trueth.
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Yes I agree too.
Registered User
Well said rayray - the problem is it is too easy for people to get away with it.
I knew a girl a looong time about who was always on centrelink benefits- infact her entire family was rauting (sp?) the system. It wasn't that she couldn't find work she was just too darn lazy. I only wished I had phoned centrelink about her.
Its a tough decision but I personally cannot stand cheats. They make it harder for everyone else, I personally would call centrelink but then thats just me.
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Can they make you pay out of your FTB?? I know my payments have never been included in dh's child support payments in anyway, it goes off his earnings only.
Lucy in the sky with diamonds.
Well re edit your posts so it doesn't look that way ok?
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ok i done that, sorry you thought i was crackin the sh&ts at BB members its not that AT ALL
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This was - and still is - an unbelievable mess. She could get her info backdated for 3 months but he couldnt - so he was told he had to pay $120 per week for the prior three months when she decided to take it through CSA again - despite the fact that he was no longer working and had 2 more children than the last time we were working through the CSA. And that was backdated 3 months from when she applied - and at her request they did not tell us that there was a re-application through CSA so it turned out to be 5 months at a rate that was simply out of our means before they even told him about it. Long story how this happened too - but it was all above board and he was happy to meet his obligations to his eldest - we had no way of contacting her at all for 3 years and then out of the blue we get sent a massive bill and cant do anything about it.
Anyway, because DH wasnt earning an income at the time we called them and tried to organise that I pay a little something when we get work in because we cant commit to anything. The lovely gentleman on the other end said that they will need to see all our income, including all centrelink income. I said that DH gets nothing from centrelink - he said my income. So I say thats my PPP and my kids FTB. None of us are financially responsible for Miss S. His reply was something along the lines of - that doesn't matter - its income coming into his house and if you don't pay it he can be jailed.
This is why I went back to tafe. I went onto austudy and he went onto PPP so that he can have an income. They pay $40 a fortnight out of it to this bill - much less than this gentleman wanted out of my kids food money! He has been cleared to use his hands normally now so he can start building up a client base again - and hopefully that means when my course finishes, I can go back to just being a mum again rather than stressed student/business partner/wfhm.
But this is what I mean about how flawed the system is. My kids didnt count in the calculation of how much he had to pay - but when it came to paying, the money I am given to support them sure as hell counted!
Last edited by Inertia; July 8th, 2009 at 07:50 PM.
foR FARKS SAKE CAPTAIN!!!!!!
we all look like we've started a conversation on a smelly fart??!!!
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