I think standard processing time for Family Assistance is about 3 weeks from when you have submitted all your paperwork but if they need anything more from you, they should have sent you a letter by now. For us, we had all our FAO stuff finalised and being paid within a week or two of all paperwork being lodged, but they said they were quiet at the time.
Go into the medicare office to organise a medicare number for him, they can give you a temporary card (piece of paper that looks like a reciept with a barcode and a number on it) until your medicare card arrives. You can also have a chat to them about Family Assistance stuff. We always do our Family Assistance through medicare - they are really helpful and don't seem as busy as C'link. They might be able to give you some answers as to where your claim is up to.
You do need a medicare number for him. But you don't have to wait for the card to arrive as they'll give you a print out to use in the meantime.
As for claims - I think my baby bonus took a few months to start! Everytime I called there was another problem. I remember one of the things they said to me was "How long have you been living in Ocean Grove?" but I have never lived there! Or I'd call & it was being processed, only when I called again the next week it had been canceled before the last phone call. It was extremely frustrating so I understand how you feel.
Its a bit more critical now it is in payments not a lump sum - we want our new house by christmas (yeah, wishful thinking right there) and the longer they take to start paying us the baby bonus, the longer it takes to get our house deposit together. I would have really preferred a lump sum.
Just talked to them (I got a very good phone person, last time I rang I got a useless one) and 21 days isn't their *average* turn around, it is their *maximum* turn around. If you go past 21 days you get flagged for special treatment. Cheezel - you probably kept getting that timeframe reset. Isn't that fun?
My claim is currently flagged for being over the maximum timeframe and has gone to the magic 'system guys' they keep mentioning, since the whole cause of this debacle was a 'system error' dating to June 30th, which is fixed by 'system guys'. Lets just ignore that this error was several days BEFORE I had the baby and SHOULDN'T be affecting this at all
They did say they usually don't backpay this kind of thing (as per my other thread) but if anyone is able to grant backpay under special circumstances its the 'system guys'.
My DS was born on the 14th July and DH took the paperwork in to Medicare (we take a Centrelink ticket) for baby bonus/medicare card on the 20th July. Medicare ordered him new cards and issued a print out for both us until they arrived. Baby Bonus and updated FTB was done within the week. Got our first baby bonus payment on the 27th August.
Sorry you are having so much trouble hopefully the "system guys" have it sorted for you quick smart. I find using the Medicare/Centrelink Service a lot easier and quicker to process than actually going into the Centrelink Office. When my first DS was born we took them in to the Centrelink Office and a couple of weeks later I called and was told they hadn't got them was I sure I sent them in. doh!!!
it took about a month from when he was born but the application was almost 2 weeks after he was born we had to call FAO first then they organised an appt for us then it was done the medicare form is on the family assistance form well it was when we did it i took him to the docs and they were able to find him in the system they had to ring up
OMG they processed it today and I got some backpay. I suppose there's something to be said for ringing them every damn week and *not* shouting obcenities at them, as tempting as that is when things take this long
Looks like the verdict for their usual turnaround is about a week to two weeks after you lodge the forms.
Now wonder I have been feeling a bit financially stretched, considering I just got around $1500 backpay ...
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