My latest trip to Centrelink

Went and get filled in from Centrelink today about the strange dates and amounts on their letter they sent. I couldn't figure out any relevancy at all to what they'd done. Looked to me like they'd just picked numbers out of the air at random. Would have been very helpful if they'd sent an explanation with the letter in the first place instead of me having to traipse up the road and spend about an hour there, mostly waiting to be seen by somebody behind the counter.

So I sit there bored shitless for ages, whilst people that were there before me slowly get called to be seen. A young couple with a baby are seen by one of the counter ladies. The guy has an Iphone and is taking pictures of the paperwork. How bizarre I thought. He lets the baby have a bit of a crawl around on the floor, hmmm, I wouldn't let a baby crawl around on that bloody floor, the carpet would have to be pretty germy with all those people walking on it. He bends down and picks her up, and has these ridiculous jeans on that you can see half his crack. Ack, no class..... 

I keep waiting. Next to me is a bloke with one of those weird hats on from another country, not sure which one, India maybe? He's clutching a stack of papers with a Centrelink letter of his own on top. I think he's probably as confused as I am.

Eventually after waiting ages I finally get called. Not feeling to well today, beers last night. Walk over with the guy to his desk, sort of like a confused zombie. Back is aching, headache, ugh... He asks me cheerfully how I am, at which time I reply with a dead pan face and I say "confused". Oh well, at least he's cheerful and making an effort. I must look a bit under the weather as he does a double take at me. Unfold the letter I printed out at home and sort of almost grunt defeatedly about the strange amounts on the letter with absolutely no explanation. Apparently Centrelink must think I have some sort of psychic ability and am able to channel them to know what it's all about.

He starts tapping away on the PC and in no time at all has the answer. Fuck I thought, if it was that easy why didn't they just send a fuckin explanation with the letter? *sheesh*

He explains that the pension card will be in the mail, so I can get all the cheap stuff. That's worth a lot of money in itself. It cheaper phone, utilities, public transport, and instead of $70 a month for prescriptions it'll only be about $18. The strange amounts on the letter are due to me getting the work redundancy payout, and by some magic Centrelink formula they have calculated next June as when it will increase to the full payment.

All a very simple explanation that took fuck all time to tell me, but had me wasting a whole hour to find out.