One thing I've noticed in particular, whether it's talking to someone on the phone, or in person, once people find out you have a Pensioner Concession Card (PCC) they're very nice to you. They go from being sort of business like, to very friendly. It's rather pleasant. I feel a bit surprised afterwards as I'm not used to that. I was talking to Simon about this last night, and suggested it's possible it's something to do that I'm obviously not an old age pensioner, so I must have some sort of disability not readily observable. People know I guess that these cards aren't just handed out to anyone, so someone my age must have some pretty severe issues to get one (yep, that's me).
Dunno how common this is, will wait and see. I've sometimes felt in the past in different situations, that I just wished the person or organisation I was dealing with knew a bit about how fucked up I was. Maybe they'd be nicer to me if so. Like the banks for example, fuck that asshole bank gave me fuckin hell, treated me like a criminal, I wonder if they'd have done that if they knew I was getting a disability pension?
(BTW the asshole bank has finally confirmed the final payments for me to make. I've been waiting for about a month and a half since they were informed that the money was available to pay it).
Went to the chemist where I had my last lot of prescriptions done, which had happened after the backdated pension card started. All up I think it was about $70 I paid then. They gave me the receipts for each item and I took the receipts to Medicare down the road on the bus. There was quite a few people in there, but also lots of staff on behind the counters and my number came up in only about 10 minutes. The lady hadn't done one of these refunds before so had to get a senior person to train her in it, I suppose it's pretty rare. At the end she handed over $44 cash back out of the $70 I'd originally paid.
I noted that Medicare was going cashless at the end of the month and took a form for my bank details if I needed to come back in the future. Also a little brochure about online services. Centrelink keeps asking me when I log into that if I want to make a password for all gov services in one go. I haven't seen any reason to, but now I see I'd be able to access Medicare as well and do all kinds of things online without having to come in. Think I'll go ahead and set that up at home.
Went into the Countrylink office at Central Station to see about the tickets out to Lightning Ridge, and to get my pensioner card registered through them. I finally decided on the dates from the 17th to the 31st of this month, a two week stay out there. The lady booked it all and asked if I wanted 1st class or economy, which I said "I dunno". First class was $30, so I said "economy". It was free, completely free. It only costs $5 if you have to book it through an agency and pay a booking fee. I was a bit stunned, couldn't believe it. Walked out of the office with a return ticket that cost me nothing.
Rang the electricity people and the phone company to get a discount on that. Dunno how much it will be but anything helps.
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