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Half to pay my credit card off and cut it up and the other half for the savings account for emergency funds. We can't forget the other benifits we get either, I was telling my friend back in Canada about the fortnightly payments and the baby bonus and she said I made a good move coming here. We just don't get much help in Canada like here.
We put $1500 aside for Chelsea and the rest went on credit cards we had used to set ourselves up before she came along.
My DH has found a fact sheet - Centrelink payments to help you raise children and in that it says the maternity payment increases to $5000 from 1 jUly 2007.
god i hope it is $5000. last time i got $3000 and then ended up using it all and more to move to canberra - baby stuff was all out of our own pocket. this time we don't have any actual baby stuff to buy (except a new pram) but that money would really be usefull in paying down our debt.
Better start crossing my legs then hahaha
I just rang Centrelink...
They said the maternity payment went up in March this year to $4133.
The Centrelink officer was unable to tell me whether it will increased to $5000 in July 2007 stating "we are not aware of any increases at the moment but don't hold me to that"...
Mmmmm....I thought it was all timetabled already....
just checked the family assistance website - it says that the payment won't increase until july 2008.
hi girls,
dh heard an ad on the radio saying the bonus was going up this year! but who knows they seem to say one thing then do the opposite! ha!
i am happy to get whatever they want to give as it will go staight into an account for skittle!
hope you dont have to cross your legs too long those wanting to hang on!:)
xo
We read an artilcle online saying it was going up on July 07 but hey we'll wait and see what happens.
Fletch, Blake was born on 30/06/05 at 9.31pm and there was no way I could have kept my legs shut for another 2.5 hours, let alone 2 weeks!
I thought it was only $3000 so hey $4000 sounds good to me, $5000 even better! Damn I wish it was twins be able to have a savings account for me, kidlets and all bills paid in advance would be so nice..
When Chelsea was born we got $4110...so it really only gone up $23 since November last year!!!
$5000 would be much nicer..... we have had to buy a 2nd lot of nursery furniture and its hurt the budget!!!
Lucky for us it's an election year, John Howard might start chucking some extra money around so if we're lucky it will go up! :crossfingers:
Mine will be going straight onto the mortgage, the quicker we pay it off now the more money there will be when it's time to put DD thru secondary school/university!!
the current details are that the maternity payment is to raise to $5000 in July 2008 - there will be a small increase in line with CPI increases in September this year and March next - was $100 last september, $33 this march, so really not too much!:p
just checked c'link website and it's definitely showing 2008 - bridee - was the fact sheet your DH found a centrelink one, or was it produced by your hospital/midwife - i know everything that i've seen from centrelink/FAO definitely says 2008...
Hi Gorgeous Gals,
I read this thread and had a quick search on the net to see if i could find any more info from there...
This is what i found.. (I know it goes on with stuff about payments for young mums, but it also mentions that there is an increase to $5000 in July 2007).
Kindest regards,
You know something really makes me think this may happen...
Its an election year. Last federal election we all got extra payments from centrelink.
It could be a great ploy to win back voters by Mr J. Howard!
I wish we could get some answers!!!!
hi girls - i work in a govvie department and we get all the minesterial updates - nothing has come through to state there has been any change to the proposed uplift to $5000 in July 2008. my guess is the papers have made an error and assumed that the change to legislation for parents under 18 years of age is in-line with an uplift - it's not.
if you look at the centrelink website (dot gov dot au) - and search for maternity payment, it's on there that the CPI increases will occur september and march, and mat payment goes up to $5000 July next year.
sorry if you were hoping for more this year girls!!
Catherine, that's a good reason why you should always go to an authoritative source and not a newspaper article! The journo who has written that has clearly got that detail wrong. I searched across all the govt sites and there is not mention of an increase apart from July 2008 and a CPI adjustment.
Dob 'em in to Media Watch, I say! :)
I still think little Johnny is likely to try to throw a few election sweeteners around, just don't know that it'll be in this area!