What a set of unfortunate circumstances. How could so many things go wrong? One must wonder if the carer is on top of the situation rather than just palming it off on the government and hoping they get it right.

I have a close relative in similar medical circumstances but have had none of the Centrelink problems described here.

In fact, because Simon says the family home was sold to pay the bond indicates to me the person with the Enduring Power of Attorney ( or other responsible family member) has been completely sleeping at the switch. We found a wealth of information on the Federal Dept of Aging web site that guided us through the process, including the significant bit explaining that home operators could not charge a bond if it required the sale of the family home.

In going through this process we have had the complete support of ACAT and Centrelink. This is not to say they didn't always get everything right as it is a rather complex process, but we did follow up and insure all forms were correctly processed and all the various players in the process were in the loop and communicating.

This blog is nothing more than an anti-Howard rant. I am sure the author using his PhD candidate research skills would have seen and been able to use all the information if he had been looking for it.

Hey there Simon, we need to take responsibility for our own (in) actions

Hey Bruce, you have had no troubles with Centrelink therefore you conclude Simon Schooneveld must be doing an anti-Howard rant. My family can match Schooneveldt's nightmare story of Centrelink's bungling (not to mention the great cost to the taxpayer in the end). So the score against Centrelink is two-one. What name-blame-game will you now produce? Or could it be that your experience of Centrelink is just different from ours?

FrankGol - Simon's experience (and probably yours too if I knew the details) sound about par for the Centrelink course. I and other members of my family have met with pretty much uniform hostility, rudeness and incompetence, in a number of matters to do with pensions and unemployment benefits. Having worked for the old DSS, (and not been too impressed with its efficiency), I thought I'd have some chance of knowing the ropes with its successor, but Centrelink is orders of magnitude worse.

One reason is that, even in the DSS days, computer record updates were too time-consuming to be done regularly in a busy office, and it's bound to be worse now, with reduced staffing. And the culture of contempt for the recipients of welfare, sickening even when I worked there in the early 90s, is unlikely to have changed for the better.

Its not just a Centerlink thing. Its the way the system deals with issues and complaints. They send letters to the wrong address, or they dont even send it, they just put a copy on their records and say that they did. They threaten, they discredit, they intimidate, they harrass and they bully in the hope that you will just become full of despair and give up. That way the problem and issue is solved in their books.

So long as their records tell the story that they want to present, then they are covered as nobody is required to actually believe or listen to the General Public.

It doesn't surprise me, its just such a shame that humans can be treated like that and those responsible not have to answer to anyone.

As a first time contributer I would like to commend this site for the opportuinity,in the Australian tradition, " To have a say." As an aged welfare recipient, 68 years young, my experience is a mixture of the good and bad, firstly, all correspondance and communication with C/L, must at all times be recorded, and if possible stamped by C/L staff, this is a major priority, as due to the blunders and ineffeciency of the system the client must be able to maintain a fallback position.All those dealing with C/L need to educate themselves as to their rights,unfortunatly many people are not able to do this, young people and older people who may lack the ability or interest. A positive side to C/L is that the F.I.S service that is available is very helpful to any one that needs assistance,another thing I need to say is that I give thanks to live in a country that does support the needy even though a lot of mistakes are made.

I think Centrelink should be in charge of overseas sales of wheat, taking over the AWB's role, because they would have picked up the alleged overpayments.

The AWB should therefore take over Centrelinks job because they wouldn't insist on families calculating their incomes to the exact dollar. I mean the AWB can't even do that.

Last year the Treasury was out by 50% in it's budget estimates and yet battling Aussie families and pensioners with few or minimal resources have to be exact to the dollar in their calculations.

Seems we expect more from people without the financial ability to get things exactly right and allow organisations who have the staff and skills necessary to do correct calculations to get things wrong.

Does this seem strange to anyone else?

I wonder if Centrelink budgets itself to the exact dollar? If not why not? It expects it of everyone else.