Centrelink calls on couples to declare
Centrelink has sent a prodding message to same-sex couples on welfare to declare their relationship or risk incurring a debt.
Centrelink general manager Hank Jongen said customers still had a 14-day grace period after the July 1 reporting deadline to update their status with the organisation. Jongen warned that after July 14, Centrelink would be obliged to investigate cases brought to its attention.
We’re now in an environment where it’s mandatory and if we receive information that indicates the likelihood of a relationship … we are now obliged to look into those situations and we will, he told Southern Star.
There’s no denying people are concerned about losing money in the process, in a sense that should be an incentive for people to declare … we want to avoid people incurring debts.
Jongen said the welfare agency would not be embarking on a -˜zero tolerance’ approach, but rorters would be pursued.
It’s not about putting in place a strong compliance regime, we believe we’ve acted in accordance with the spirit of what the government’s trying to achieve with these changes and the reality is it’s now a non discriminatory environment, Jongen said.
If a couple deliberately set out to deceive us and we’re able to find evidence of that, then there is the risk, in the most serious cases, of prosecution.
At the end of the voluntary declaration period, around 3000 Centrelink customers had reported they were part of a couple.
Of those, 42 percent receive the family tax benefit, 16 percent collect the age pension and 17 percent collect disability support.
Welfare Rights Network director Maree O’Halloran said the network had received a large number of calls, mostly from older Centrelink recipients concerned about the changes.
She said one couple had been forced to move out of their home because they could no longer afford the rent, while another women had considered ending her relationship because of the income loss.
If you’re on a low income, you’ve paid a very high price for equality -” that’s not to do with Centrelink, they can’t be blamed for this, the government got it half right, O’Halloran said.
The same-sex law reform was fantastic overall, but in the area of social security and Centrelink, people on low incomes are losing quite a lot of money. People in opposite-sex relationships have had the benefits of the law and equality all their life and all their life they’ve known how this works.
Jongen said Centrelink was aware of concerns around older customers declaring their relationships and said social workers would be used if investigations were required.
info: Call Centrelink on 13 6280 or Welfare Rights Centre 1800 226 028
more over here on the topic, and were meant to trust hank?
http://www.centreflunk.com/forum/index.php?topic=2171.0
What they tell you one minute will be different from the next, hold onto your seats for the ride of your life. It is going to get messy.
To Andrew, you’ve got to be f*%#ing kidding me, Hank Jongen is gay?!?. No wonder he looks so smug he’s one of the few gay people benefiting from this.
So the Labour party decided that people in GBLT relationships now are required give up their individual rights and entitlments to gain what? it seems the government has created equal right for individuals only. What a beautiful theocracy we live in.
Thankyou Hank Jongen for trying to make is sound so nice, but unlike your boyfreind who will undoubtly benefit from your large superannuation and government pension, there are a lot of people in the GBLT community who aren’t as lucky as you.
So much for us getting marriage in return for equality, the government shfted all of us by cherry picking what they wanted and giving us crumbs. The silence on this from the Gay and Lesbian Rights lobby is deafening, they are way too buddy buddy with the ALP.
My research (anecdotal, I admit) concludes that most gays r simply in denial; re-arranging their affairs and telling Centrelink “wotever” so as to avoid inclusion – after all, why co-operate and lose? This is a witch-hunt, no less!
I spoke to the welfare rights network and they told me they are having tonnes of people ringing them after being treated like shit for being gay and centrelink staff “accidentally” making mistakes.
Welfare rights network are putting together a dossier on a number of discriminatory cases and taking them to Canberra.
Where are you now Gay and Lesbiasn Rights Lobby?, its time to deal with the shit storm that you have whipped up, how about waking up from your self-congratulatory “Mission Accomplished” garbage and start fighting against the very real institutionalised discrimination we are facing from Centrelink?
All I can advise is to make the Centrelink staff make a photocopy of the info that you give them with Centrelink date stmp on it, that way you have proof that you gave them the info in the first place, also if you can’t get that then get a receipt number from them every time you speak to them. Don’t assume that they know what they are talking about when they tell you rules and income limits, speak to at least three people asking the same questions (you may very well get three different answers!!), the best people to speak to are Financial Information Service officers, though even they can get it wrong. Whatever you can get in writing from them, get in writing, they’re slippery bastards and will lie through their teeth unless you have documentation to back it up. You seriously need to watch your back with Centrelink, otherwise they will try to kick you off your payment.
so i went to centrelink because my relationship with my partner is now recognised by centrelink which means at long last i’m entitled to youth allowance.
anyway, we turn up, hand in all our forms and documents, leases etc etc and it all gets sent off for processing. a week later we get a letter each, saying they need ‘futher info’ of joint bank accounts and leases showing we live together – even though we’d already provided the joint bank account detail and leases. nevertheless we go to centrelink and they photocopy the leases again. a few days later we get a letter saying “you are not independent”. so we go back that there’s been a mistake. the service clerks assume we’re straight, and when they eventually figure we’re gay their attitude changes like that from friendly, helpful trying to figure out what went wrong, to not looking at us, not saying a word except if absolutely necessary. it made us feel absolutely awful.
meanwhile, it was like someone deleted all the information we’d provided them with which proved our relationship?!
i can’t help but think there’s some sort of awful thing going on with our claim. because they certainly treated us like shit when they found out we were gay. but god knows you can’t prove it. i’m thinking about reporting the centrelink staff members whose attitude changed so fundamentally when they found out we were gay, but it would probably just increase their homophobia? what do you think?
I am one of the 17 per cent who receive a carer pension that have declared my relationship and I can tell you that the Centrelink staff have been running round like chooks with their heads cut off.
I can tell you right now that the average Centrelink worker at the lowest part of the pecking order has very little idea how to process this on their systems, (which isn’t that surpising as it can be complicated) but they are doing their best.
Most of the people I’ve spoken to have been very polite and nice to me, though I must say I had a horrible experience with one today. This one (supposedly senior staff member) tried to repeatedly tell me that my partners compulsory superannuation contributions affected my pension. She then handed me a document that she printed off from their policies on how to assess income which very clearly stated that the compulsory superannuation contribution was NOT regarded as income affecting pensions.
When I pointed out to her that what she was saying was in direct contradiction with what the paper that she gave me was saying she told me that there was a glitch in the system that will be fixed up in a day or two. When I asked her to make a note on my file saying what she was telling me she refused.
As soon as I got home I logged on the internet and found that my pension had been cancelled!!
I rang Centrelink straight away and verified that the 9 percent super doesn’t affect pensions, and verified that she had gone into the system and coded the superannuation in such a way that it was assessed as income. The guy on the phone at Centrelink was apologetic and is getting a Financial Information Service officer to rectify it and get back to me.
The womans attitude to me sucked right from the moment that I told her that my partner was not my husband (as that was how she was referring to my partner) and the woman whose information I was giving her was my partner, right from then she was belligerent and refused to listen to a word I said.
So it works both ways Hank, don’t treat us like crap once we’ve declared and done the right thing, for a lot of pensioners, particularly old age the thought of someone knowing you’re gay can be frightening. Many old age pensioners would be scared of actually fighting or saying anything when they have their pension unjustifiably cancelled or cop the sideways glances that I was copping from this woman.
While I can understand that some couples may fear discrimination, vilification or harassment, this is unlikely to be caused by advising Centrelink of their status.
There are very strong privacy laws which make disclosure of protected information punishable by imprisonment. A person’s relationship status would not be allowed to be passed onto third parties, except in very limited circumstances. Centrelink records can’t, for example, be subpoenaed in the vast majority of court proceedings.
Centrelink officers are required, as are all public servants, to act in a non-discriminatory fashion.
I can tell you from experience that claims of discrimination are treated seriously, even in cases where there is strictly speaking no federal legislation. In any case, Centrelink officers deal with so many customers with so many different situations that they are probably more tolerant than the average Australian. Of course, there are quite a number of gay staff members in Centrelink, as in any other large organisation.
While on the computer records couples are linked together as partners, there is no field or other indicator in a person’s record which says that they’re straight or gay.
I understand the disappointment particularly older gay couples may feel in losing benefits on which they’ve come to rely, but I think it’s a really positive step that same-sex couples are now treated exactly the same. Hopefully it will get us to a step where no one has to look over their shoulder or feel awkward about talking about their weekend with their same-sex partner. If that means that same-sex couples take on the disadvantages that straight couples have had all along, then it’s a small price to pay.
I just declared my relationship – there is a special number you can call – they are posting me out a form for my partner to fill in with information about income.
Special centrelink number = 13 6280
Don’t get caught as a welfare cheat – declare your relationships
If there are no anti-discrimination laws at a federal level (which are overdue and needed now in 2009) what do you expect Centrelink???? – gays will not declare any of their relationships out of fear of disrimination, vilification and harassment!!!