TiddlyPom

And how the hell do you manage it?

MartinLuther

Are you talking about old age (Aged) pension or another type of pension?

TiddlyPom

Other... sole parent payment... tax benefits etc...

I want to hear from people who are really struggling because I think there are a lot of us currently...

In my opinion, a centrelink pension isn't enough to live on.

NickyP

Our son is on a disability pension and couldn't live on his own with it (although it would increase slightly if he had his own place). It is a struggle for anyone on benefits aswell as the stress of getting the damn things in the first place .
Nicky

TiddlyPom

I have a friend, Nicky, who worked in the Howard Gvt. Apparently keeping the pensions 'low' was a way to 'encourage' people to get out and get a job. I believe the word they made up for it was 'incentivise' ....

Of course, anyone who's living on benefits is usually there for a reason... like myself at the moment. I don't really want to be there, I want to be free of Centrelink, but the nigh on impossible money means that you just get behind on bills and feel down about your situation. It builds stress rather than gets rid of it.

How your son is meant to be incentivised, I don't know. Disability is disability...

rabsody

Yeah I used to (single parent thing) and it was damn hard back then, god knows how people do it now with the huge increases in cost of living. I had to get people in to rent rooms to help with the bills. Are you drawing an income at the mo? I found it was best to stay below a certain wage if you had kids in childcare otherwise once you reached a certain point you were no longer entitled to free medical, childcare, reduced public transport costs etc and you lost a lot of your payments and it was incredibly difficult to get by. Not entirely sure how that incentivises people who are not capable of making a big jump in salary?

TiddlyPom

No salary currently but hopefully real soon now!

I have the 'sliding scale' info here and yes, I should stay below a certain rate if I want to continue receiving benefits, but I actually don't.

Now my son is 6, I have to prove that I am spending 30 hours a fortnight seeking work... or that I'm earning the minimum wage for those 30 hours...
which hopefully soon won't be hard to do, but hell, I'm behind on bills ... It's ridiculous.
I'm half tempted to go and see my local MP and say 'Look at this! How the hell is anyone meant to live like this?'
At least then he'll bring it up on my behalf in parliament...
I'm no dole bludger.. Never been on state anything in my life but sometimes, shit happens and you need it.
My friend who used to work in gvt with all these ministers in the planning side of things now suffers with terrible depression and is on a disability pension... he works for local council a couple of times a week....
He helped the politicians make the policy and now he's on the damn thing himself.
He says it's not possible to live on any sort of pension in Australia and I agree.

JoanL

We are a couple on disability pension and carer's pension. We manage well, but have very simple needs. We don't smoke or booze, we have fruit trees, a veggie and herb garden and chooks, and because my husband's disability is arthritis and mild agoraphobia, we don't go out much.

We buy major things from savings, though we did get a loan for a car when our old Ford died on us. We use all the available discounts, and shop around, which saves a fortune.

Modern technology means we can hire DVDs of films and buy great music on CD, and we have a home gym, so things we used to have to go out for, we don't any more. As young 'uns we were full of it - here, there and everywhere, but these days we wander the world on the internet.

I think it would be hard on the pension if we wanted to travel a bit, and go to live theatre, concerts etc, or if we wanted to buy new clothes and shoes regularly. Or if went to restaurants, and/or bought processed fancy foods.
But our life isn't like that.

I used to want to go out more, but I'm becoming more and more insular these days. Perhaps this is is just a natural reaction to a low income, or perhaps a good combination of circumstances. We can pay our bills on time, and eat properly, so i guess the basics are taken care of.

PS Our savings are what we save from the pension, and we do not own our own home: we have government housing.

TiddlyPom

I think the self sufficiency thing is the key, Joan. Once you're set up, you can keep re-seeding from previous crops... I don't booze or smoke either. I catch the train when I can, only hire weekly DVD's, buy at Aldi, buy home brands, shop for bargains... but my rent for a four bed house for me and three children is $660 a fortnight. My incomings leave me with just over $50 a week to handle food and bills for three children and one adult. Thank god they spend 50% of their time with their dad. As it is, I can't manage but have taken steps recently to do a training course which was free to me so that I could head into work....
That's the good thing about pensions... you get very reduced train travel for yourself and kids. It cost me and three children only $5 to travel around Sydney this week.
I think you get very canny in ways of saving costs...

Next couple of weeks will see me employ my sewing machine for the kids....

rabsody

Gosh, that is really tough TP. Does the childrens' father not pay any maintenance? I know you have shared care but if he is earning more than you he is still required to pay some.

JoanL

Tiddlypom, that is bloody awful what you are going through. Apply for government housing, and apply for rent rebate; I'm sure you are entitled. We only manage because our kids have left - we were much poorer with both of us working and the lads at home.

It will be great for you when you get qualified: i did it on hecs, and am now a qualified TESOL teacher, but can't use it right now because of my circumstances. Still, it is there as a fail-safe.

PS our government house is lovely, and the neighbourhood, mixed government and private, is quiet. We did own a home before, but Terry lost his job and got unfairly blacked (long story) so he couldn't get another...we staggered on as long as we could, but in the end it was starve or sell.

TiddlyPom

Yep he does. It goes on bills and food - under new rules $800 a month.. which goes on the bills and clothing/food.

Petals

My daughter lives on Disability at the moment but lives with us. She manages.

My mum lives on the Aged Pension with some aged pension from UK but they decrease her centrelink pension for that. She rents and gets rent assistance and she does have money of her own as she sold her property. She is ok.