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Makes total sense BG :) Thanks. It is a shame I was told over the phone to start the process for baby bonus & FTB and that is why, up until now, I had been confused about the whole applying online thing.
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So, I thought I would update.
I called on Monday to ask again when my payments should be starting as it had been 35 days since we lodged everything. The woman told me that we should be getting there and she put a note on my file to see why it was taking so long.
Yesterday I called again to find out what was going on. I was told I needed to go in to the office and fill out a form and lodge it as apparently we didn't do it. I was told that we lodged it somewhere totally different to where we did. I had to argue both of these points as we did fill in the forms and we did lodge them at Centrelink and not Medicare. Grrrr! That was a bit annoying. So, DH came home from work after finally getting the chance to get the Stat Dec signed in front of a JP - it is amazing how many JP's aren't available after 5:30pm on any given day! - and we went to Centrelink to sort out all that stuff.
What had happened was that the back of the form that is meant to be filled out by a midwife and stamped was filled out by a midwife who forgot to put her number (?) down and it also wasn't stamped with the hospital stamp (?). DH thankfully had the stat dec papers with him that Centrelink viewed and photocopied and made a note of. Apparently this should all be processed now in the coming few days.
What craziness!! lol. I'm glad it is all sorted. I am so glad I finally got someone on the phone from Centrelink that told me that there was a problem and to go in to the office. Everyone else just kept telling me that it was being worked on and it should be happening soon.
Now to FINALLY get the medicare card!
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unfortunately, at a call centre level, we can't see if there are any "issues" with paperwork until the processing centre go to process the claim and they note it on your file. so all the staff you've spoken to previously would look at it, see claim in progress, and that's it. once the message was sent the other day that it was over the normal time frame, someone in processing would have looked, seen the issues with the form, and put it on your file. they would have sent a letter too - be prepared - it will probably arrive in the coming days!
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Someone from Centrelink called me straight after I posted previously to let me know that everything is now sorted and I should be receiving baby bonus as of today and I will be backpaid FTB from Lucinda's date of birth. I'm just happy that it has gone through. The Medicare card has been the most important thing to me lately though. That will all be sorted this afternoon :)
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yay!! glad it's been sorted for you now!
can't believe the hospital didn't fill out your forms properly - that's damn slack on their part!
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So glad it has been sorted, Lisa :D
xx
