Australian welfare: we don’t care about full time students
Filed under: GearGOD's
Today I called up centrelink to ask them for some financial help as I’m really starting to feel the pressure of studying full time and trying to pay for rent and bills and food. My parents don’t support me. I had to drop one of my 4 subjects this semester so I can work 2 days a week and barely keep up with my expenses. Sounds like some help is in order, right?
Wrong.
The lovely lady on the phone informed me that there are only two ways that they will help me: either I must earn 18 thousand dollars (aka work full time) or I must show that its unreasonable to live at home, which by their definition is only the case if you’re getting raped or beaten up or something along those lines. Nevermind that I got practically kicked out, nevermind that my parents live 3 hours from where I work and study, nevermind that parents are not legally obliged to support their children after 21. No, Centrelink looks past all that and sees me as receiving financial help from them – help which they couldn’t provide even if they wanted to because they’re so deep in debt.
Apparently I’m not the only one in this ridiculous situation, and it has driven students to cheating the system or living in poverty or even resorting to prostitution to pay the bills. What the hell is wrong with our government? Why do lazy dole bludgers, who never worked in their life and never intend to get support from the government while the youth that chooses full time tertiary education gets ignored?
The worst thing is that it is us, the students, who will go on to well paid jobs which will attract the high taxes that will go to drive the system that screwed us over when we needed it most. I don’t think I’ll have any moral dilemma about doing everything I can to evade taxes after this.
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Tags: centrelink, education, politics, students, uni, welfare
March 20th, 2009 at 9:10 pm
I guess your elected representatives would love to help but they’re too busy drinking ice-cold beer on the beach.
March 25th, 2009 at 4:35 am
If there was ever a perfect example of red-tape bureaucracy, Centrelink is the perfect example.
And what is also horrible is that whoever we vote, having a two-party system (Labor and Liberal) means that neither one will change Centrelink unless we vote in a third party who will CHANGE the system, or one idealistic party member will instigate the change.
Alas, this is democracy at work :S.
June 30th, 2009 at 1:49 am
I feel your pain. I’ve been out of work for almost three years and Centrelink won’t give me any support. Other than a low income health care card, which I kind of need otherwise my insulin costs would probably mean that I’d be dead from hyperglycemia within a month.
September 2nd, 2009 at 4:50 am
You should thank god, you are really lucky to have time to worry about such little problems.