Centrelink $ for the flood victims

It'sNotWorthComplaining! · 14th January 2011, 10:46 AM

I saw on the Kochie Sunrise program an interview with the head of Centrelink about emergency cash money for flood victims.

But what disturbed me was the offer of $1000 per adult and $400 per child if you had been without utilities for 48hrs.
This could leave it up to scamming, as power was cut off to various suburbs for safety, so some may have been effected a by these cuts but not necessarily had actual water damage. So if a family of 2 adults and 3 kids, would be entitled to $3200 for 48hrs of inconvenience.
Even if food spoiled and needed to be thrown out, if would not be any where near that sum. We had the same offering here in the hills when we had bushfires and people decided to leave the area for the day, and rorted the system by claiming the payment as their homes were not affected. There was disgust in the community that some got paid this amount for nothing. Centre link did not have any safeguards to stop the rorting.
Give it to the genuine people in need for hardship

Kochie said it was good and on his closing comments and said that that's what taxes are for.
Yes Kochie, but where do these taxes come from. Yes Help the geniune needy but lets hope there is no rorting of the system just because it is offered.

**Utemad** · 14th January 2011, 11:01 AM

Of course it will be rorted. It is a government handout. They always are.

**Landy Smurf** · 14th January 2011, 11:05 AM

maybe they are just trying to be carefulw ith the money hand outs until they do abit more cleaning up.but yes when you think how much these families have probably paid in taxes they would not be getting much back from that.

**KarlB** · 14th January 2011, 11:19 AM

I agree with your concerns INWC. Problem is how do you stop the rorting with out causing considerable inconvenience to people in the most need? How do you prove to CentreLink that your house has been flooded (remember there are many thousands of houses and people affected)? Seems to me CentreLink is in a bit of a loose-loose situation. Same with the evacuation centres. How are they to know that the people they are providing meals for are not just bludgers in for a free feed? Fortunately, most people do the right thing.

Cheers
KarlB

**incisor** · 14th January 2011, 01:14 PM

yeah and no assets test...

it is already being heavily rorted judging by what my son was telling me yesterday.

**Bearman** · 14th January 2011, 01:34 PM

Originally Posted by incisor

yeah and no assets test...

it is already being heavily rorted judging by what my son was telling me yesterday.

There will always be those who rort systems put in place to help the needy and I guess that it's too difficult to police properly. I know back a couple of years ago when we had the floods up here there were people lining up 2 and 3times around at various locations and getting the cash handout. Some of them hadn't even been affected by the floods. In the aftermath they identified and caught up with a few of them but I am sure more got away with it than got caught. Whenever there's a handout they come out of the woodwork. I know it's a controversial subject but one other thing that dont agree with is the people who dont have insurance. When something like this happens they rely on the good will and generosity of the rest of the populace and the Governments to help them out. I reckon everyone who owns a house should have full insurance. As mentioned in another thread those of us who do pay insurance are facing massive premium increases. Mine went up 60% last year and I have never ever had a claim. When I checked around other companies I found mine was the cheapest so it was "grin and bear it". Hate to see what next years is going to be.

**UncleHo** · 14th January 2011, 01:39 PM

Yeah! but just look at what is in the fine print on those insurance contracts,as the people with AAMI are finding out

**Bearman** · 14th January 2011, 01:49 PM

Originally Posted by UncleHo

Yeah! but just look at what is in the fine print on those insurance contracts,as the people with AAMI are finding out

You're not wrong there Uncle, one has to be a bush lawyer to understand the fine print these days, and it takes about 2 days to read it. Just last week I got my renewal for the County (which I have had for 15 odd years) and noticed that the windscreen is not covered (optional now - same premium)
Gave them a call and the lovely lass on the other end said that this has been the case for a while now. I politely said that it was still there a couple of years ago when I got one replaced and I have had no notification in the change to my policy. After a bit of checking she came back and said that they had made a mistake and yes it was covered. I have a "No excess" comprehensive policy. Needless to say if I had not picked it up I would have had to fork out next time I did a screen. Not bad.

**Blknight.aus** · 14th January 2011, 01:54 PM

should be done from the back of a van with wireless internet.

the assesor parks out the front of the house thats listed as the residential ADDY and make an on the fly assesment.. do it street by street instead of cae by case logging the addresses and the damage level.

$200 feeds 4 for a week so if you have no other damage then you get $200 if your power went out according to Energex for more than 48 hours and no rebate on the water.

if your house went under you get the $1k per adult $400 per kid $50 for each registered pet and the $100 water rebate.

Cmon people its the information age. If I can track in near real time the water level and inundations of my home suburb from across the country surely they can make this happen.

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