Pollyana

Never having been eligible for any benefits, nor needed any, I only have a sketchy idea of how it works here. Hence I'm asking for some quick help, and some reliable info please, so that I can sure someone isn't spinning me a line about what he is entitled to, and I know someone on here will be able to tell me...........(the line spinning is likely to be from him rather than from the authorities by the way!)
Details are:
Single male aged 73-74, living alone in Brisbane, has no property or assets apart from a car thats not worth much.
Has been told to leave his rental unit with 2 months notice as work needs doing on it.
Has an Aussie state pension (or whatever they call it here) - anyone able to give me an approx figure for this? I know they are means tested but he has no means so I guess he is on the full thing.
Thinks he "might" qualify for some housing benefit/allowance on top of the pension?
Does anyone think there are any other benefits he might qualify for?

Main issue is that he says he cannot afford to rent anywhere in Brisbane as everywhere is too expensive, so I'm trying to establish what his income level is likely to be, hence how much he has available for rent. And does anyone know what happens in a situation like that? Is there any law etc that says the Housing Dept HAS to house him somewhere? He says if they don't he will have to live in his car, with all his stuff in storage. He has no family he can live with.

Says he has been to citizens advice/housing etc and no-one can help him with any accommodation.

Any help much appreciated and quite possibly worth a pint or two

quoll

He will be eligible for the Commonwealth Rent Assistance which is for low income earners. He definitely should apply for government housing and he may be lucky if they are having a big hit on accommodation for the elderly like they are down here. $644 a fortnight is single person max rate http://www.centrelink.gov.au/interne.../age_rates.htm and he should also go and talk to the social workers at centrelink who may be able to direct him to specialist accommodation officers. CRA details here http://www.centrelink.gov.au/interne...assistance.htm

Dont know this mob personally but my experience of support services for the homeless is that they have their finger on the pulse of what is available and possible

HART 4000. Wesley House 1/140 Ann St, Brisbane, 4000.
HART stands for Homelessness Assessment Referral Team. They are an outpost of the New Farm Neighbourhood Centre and are there to help people find suitable accomodation. The officers will help with everything from filling out Public Housing forms to helping finding other assisstance such as food vouchers etc. They are extremely friendly and there is coffee and tea available. You must be at the office by 9.00am Mon, Tue, Thu, Fri to make an appointment for accomodation referrral etc. Outside of this you may be able to use the phone, make a coffee etc depending on demand for services.

Also this lot look like they could be helpful http://www.newfarmneighbourhood.org/taas_in.htm

jad n rich

Only from google but it seems a pension for single person no assets would be around $400 a week with rent assistance included.

R has a stack of elderly relatives in syd and melb, most claim the assets test is very harsh and most moan they dont get pensions. So he may not be getting anywhere near that amount


The centerlink website would be more accurate no doubt

I just checked out the assets thing, starts reducing from 178,000 for a non homowner, the catch I guess is the 16 page form for you to list your assets, didnt read it, but it sounds like a lot of things are counted as assets to reduce the pension.

Pollyana

Thanks for that - he has no assets worth speaking of, pile of junk really apart from about $1000 worth of car, a tv and a pc. There has been a lot of moaning about here being no money, and a lot of talk of form filling but not being eligible for anything - either housing, money or anything else.

Thats really helpful, cheers. I will definitely kick him in the direction of that HART centre. I find it odd that he is saying no-one can do anything and he will have to live in the car, as presumably organisations like this will do their utmost to help him get somewhere, even on a short term basis?
I'll also ask him about the Commonwealth Rent Assistance thing, - he has been telling me everywhere he looks at is too expensive, but I'm guessing he's ignoring any rent assistance. Looking at those figures, he should be able to find somewhere. I think he needs to play the elderly card a bit more with the govt departments, and maybe through in a health thing - living in a car in this weather can't be acceptable surely?

Cheers for that - very useful

ABCDiamond

The only "asset" that he may have that could influence his claim may be the surrender value of any life assurance policy.

However, he can claim the full pension if his total assets are under $307,000 (this comes down to $178,000 for a home owner as the residence is excluded).

The maximum benefit appears to be:
A part pension is payable whilst the assets do not exceed $774,500 or $645,500 + home for homeowners.

A pensioner can earn up to $142 per fortnight and still get the full pension,
with the part pension available until earnings reach $1,544.20 per fortnight.


As for Public Housing.... http://www.housing.qld.gov.au/rentin...waiting_ha.pdf

Pollyana

Thanks for that

So reading that last link.....someone who has to sleep in their car because they have nowhere else, would be very high need?

And if....hypothetically - they had a friend saying "you can stay here till you get somewhere else" - they would be slightly less high need, cos they have a roof over their heads?

There is a quote in another thread on here about needing to get a backbone, does anyone have one I can borrow to use tomorrow moring?

quoll

Yup, if someone has "no one" to stay with then they are going to be higher need, living in a car is going to be a higher need factor than couch surfing. If he can muster a bit of illness or disability in there as well then that will also increase his need factor. Without "high" needs his chances of getting a gov place are not great (not around here anyway and I doubt that other states are much better) - think 5 - 10 years on a waitlist, but with high needs that could be as low as 3 months.

He is better getting a homelessness agency doing the work for him because that demonstrates his lack of local friend support. On the bright side, all the states have just signed up to a federal initiative to reduce the number of rough sleepers so there may be something being done in Qld which will offer him better options.