Saturday 24 January 2015

The impossibility of Housing

Got the official Housing letter rejecting our application to be put on the priority housing list. Have scanned it and emailed it off to our social worker as I don't know where the fuck to go from here. The news isn't all bad, as they say we may still qualify for some kind of private rental assistance, whatever that is. Will wait and see what the social worker thinks.

What really got me though was how much rent they say is "affordable" on what we currently get. The affordability assessment is $360 a week, they have declared from on high, is only $20 less than what we pay now. In other words just about the same. Which means even on $360 a week our $ would be pretty much the same.

Which is my pension covers the rent, that's it. What's left is David's Newstart and Carers allowance, totaling about $600 a fortnight, or $300 a week. After rent that's what they say we both can afford to live off.

That's $300 a week for both of us, or $150 a week each

What crazy moronic bureaucrat came up with that? I can guarantee whoever it was had never tried living on $150 a week FFS. It's just ridiculous. No fuckin wonder we keep having to bail ourselves out of debt. It's just not a livable amount.

On a rough calculation, that $360 is about 55% of our total income, an income which is fuck all. How can the Dept of Housing, of all people, claim that that is an affordable rent to pay? 

No comments:

Post a Comment