Centrelink dramatics

A way forward through the new financial crisis we're presently facing has opened up, after David visited his doctor yesterday.

Has not been a good time for him of late. This last financial year has been a disaster with his work and the discrimination experienced has taken it's toll. After years of working at the place, and now finding himself shunned from it without being called for over 5 weeks, he's found himself severely depressed. So much so as to have been referred to counseling and being put on anti-depressants as of yesterday. 

His doctor, upon seeing his state and the worries being faced,  gave him a Centrelink sickness certificate so that he'd be able to apply for the Sickness Allowance. I think it done him good in the head for finally there to be some recognition by the system of his plight.

The Sickness Allowance is the same thing that I was on when I had acute kidney failure and was off work for two months. It's a very minimal payment to help people when they're sick and have no other money to support themselves, and who have a job to go back to when they recover. The forms are huge and daunting, and it was only after a few weeks of being sick that I was forced to apply for the thing to get at least some money coming in. It was about the same as Newstart I think, about $300 a week including rent assistance. Ironically at the time I was living alone and the $300 in it's entirety wasn't even enough to cover the rent.

So I ring Centrelink so David can get the forms sent out (they're actually booklets, way too much to print out here) and put the phone on the table so we could hear when a human answered and the Centrelink muzak stopped. I gave up after being on hold for half an hour. Rang back later, this time I gave up after 50 minutes when the phone battery died. Fucks sake! So I go to the landline connected to the wall and try ringing from there. The phone system drops out/cuts off over and over. I gave up for the day.

Rang this morning at 9am, and they said a 10 minute wait expected to talk to a human. Forty minutes later, finally, a human voice answered....... I was almost speechless. I spluttered, "Oh hello. I was just minding the phone" and handed it to David.

All this just to get a form sent out :s