ohippy

Has anyone sucessfully claimed this benefit ?? If so, how do you do it ?

1st attempt - went into Medicare office, lady said, 'yes I can do that for you, but best if you wait until you have your lease agreement'

2nd attempt - went into Medicare office - one and only person who can do this has just gone for an extended lunch.

3rd attempt - went into Medicare office - one and only person who can do this is sick

4th attempt - went into Medicare office - one and only person who can do this is still sick

5th attempt - 12pm went into Centrelink office (when I finally found it hidden) "you need an appointment", "can I have an appointment please", "no, I have none left today", "can I have one for tomorrow?", "no, you have to come in the same day and get an appointment"

6th attempt - registered online and got my 'can' number. Went to logon and the number cannot be accepted !!!

AAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH HHHHHH

I want to punch someone NOW !!!

JAJ

Why are you going to a Medicare office in the first place?

jad n rich

Go to centerlink instead. The benefit is income tested over the year, what you earnt in the UK plus what you will earn in OZ. If you dont have a perm job you will have to 'estimate' your income and reguarly update them in an attempt to claim an accurate amount of benefits. At the end of the tax year centerlink and the tax office cross check records. Then your benefit is adjusted accordingly. If you underestimated you pay it back, if you overestimated you get a lump sum.

Alternatively you claim your benefit at the end of the tax year and get the correct amount in a lump sum. Dont forget to include your interest on money in the bank etc, the checking system was recently upgraded and banks now has to be provide interest details to centerlink too.

232Bar

We let the Accountant process it for us at the year end tax meeting. She put the claim in there and then, showed us what we're entitled to and it came through no problem. Felt like you're actually getting something when you get it as a lump rather than in bits and pieces and no danger of being overpaid for the year and paying back etc. Doubt we'll get it next year though as we'll have had a full year of employment then, whereas this time we only had part-year.

ohippy

Medicare and Centerlink do the family tax benefit so you can claim in either - apparently !! No one seems to want to deal though. Perhaps I smell

biggy

hmmm bit odd as medicare has nowt to do with FTB its Centrelink and ATO

Wendy

I know in Adelaide, there are some places that have offices where you see about Medicare or Centrelink at the same place. The staff know about both of them and have forms for both etc.

I went to one when we first arrived with my Cousin who needed to see them about her FTB and I applied for my Medicare card while she did that.

ozzieeagle

If you and your Partner are on the average wage of Circa 52,000 Aud, each and you have two kids, you'll only get the tax benefit up to circa 108,000 bucks. IE on 4,000 dollars.

It gets worse... Every dollar of combined income you get over 88,000 dollars they take 21 cents of off the rebate.... essentially equating to a tax rate of 31 cents standard plus the 21 cents deducted child tax benefit.... Equals 51 cents in the dollar tax.


I am really pissed off with this situation.... not only did it cost me 7,000 dollars in repayments to centrelink... now 4 years later it turns out they owe me money, after I've been paying them back at 200 bucks per month for the last 4 years.

Salary packaging actually makes the whole situation even more complicated. I wont go into detail on that.

biggy

lol strange place this at times

binbird

Hi Heather

When we first got here we didn't bother claiming as neither of us were actually working (or looking for work!) so didn't feel we justified any payment. After a couple of months we did start actively seeking work and downloaded the form from the centrelink website. Once this was completed (about 34 pages later!) we took this into our local medicare office who were happy to witness our ID and forward the document to Centrelink. About a week later, we got a call from centrelink querying a couple of points and checking our date of arrival in the country as the payment was to be backdated. Nice and easy for us but no more money from centrelink as we are both working now. It's a fair system.

Hope you get it sorted soon.

Good luck.

B

Siren & Brian

Medicare has started to deal with the Family Benifits lately.

Ring centrelink and make an appointment, dont stress as they will back pay you upto 3 months.

Karen and Iain

I made my family tax benefit claim at the medicare/family assistance office in Rockingham, took about 5 minutes waiting, 30 minutes at the desk and letter came through in about 5 days. Hang on in there!
Karen

ohippy

I think I may be better off at Rockingham than here in Mandurah - whereabouts is the medicare up there ? I'll go when the kids are back at school. I have completed all the forms and have all the documentation, just need to see someone.