#632 Thursday 5 July

Rant!  Beware!
I have had a morning of discovery of yet another instance of "reduction of benefits by stealth" by the federal government.  You may have noticed that in the last budget, the government decided to cease paying the refund for education expenses and to replace it with a lumpsum payment regardless of expenses.  On first glance this seems like an improvement  .... but what wasn't clear was that the lumpsum is only payable if you are eligible for the Part A benefits!
I found this out when I went to find out why we hadn't been paid .... and found out that our Part A entitlement had been cancelled 5 years ago ..... and never reinstated despite being eligible ever since.  I now have a small mountain of claim forms to complete and lodge .... and there are two years for which we can no longer claim.

All this happened when we were having the toughest time with Kaylia and we were the most vulnerable.  The system ... rather than trying to help people in need ... is stacked against them.
 .
More .... it may not be quite so bad.  I noticed (while submitting the current online claims) that I had lodged a claim in 2009 which still has not been processed .... the explanation is that the volume of claims due to natural disasters has been so great that they are still processing claims from that period!  This means that I may may be able to argue that if their processing had not been delayed, I would also have lodged a claim in 2010 ..... my failure to lodge in 2010 is due to their processing problems.  If this is accepted I may be able to still claim for 2010.
Kaylia is home from school.  She seems very happy.  She's gone off to the playground with Kat.
.
Bedtime:
We're very confused! Kaylia has taken herself off to bed in her own room! We've been able to watch two programs on TV! Naomi and I have a few minutes of time to ourselves ..... something we haven't had for a couple of years.
.
WHAT'S WRONG!!