I've had the first bill from the new owners of the care home for Jim. I noticed it, sitting quietly in the junk folder of my email, as I was heading to bed on Tuesday evening. I foolishly fished it out of the junk file and read it.
It wanted the usual amount for Jim's daily care. Plus an arrears of $30,200, transferred from the previous owners. I really don't understand what the difficulty with this is. I've had two letters from Services Australia saying that Jim's daily fee will be the minimum payment, no extras required, one effective from February 1st, and one from March 1st. Nothing has changed in the time from July 22 to February 23. If it can be assessed from February, then why not from July 22?
Sigh!!!!!!!!!!!!
Also, the bill only said that the money would be taken by direct debit on the agreed date. I didn't know what the agreed date was. The previous people had taken the money on the first Thursday of the month and that was in the past. I didn't want them trying to take that amount from my bank account. That would have seriously amused the bank!
I rang work as soon as it opened and said I wouldn't be in.
I decided that I couldn't, just couldn't bear to ring the assessment people yet again, so drove out to the wastelands where Services Australia moved a couple of years ago. It's easy enough to get to by car but I do wonder how people who don't have a car get there. I assume there's a bus service ...
Anyway. I had a pleasant, reasonably short wait before a helpful, lovely lady called me. She was highly sympathetic but alas, the only people who can deal with this are the Residential Aged Care Assessment people and they are only available by phone. She did give me their phone number (which, you'll be amazed to hear, I already have) and a number for the complaints and feedback line.
Mega Sigh.
I called into the cafe next door for emergency raisin toast and a hot chocolate, then went home and rang the assessment number. 45 minutes later I was talking to yet another person who asked all the same questions, checked the documentation to make sure it was all there (it was), and told me that the assessment was waiting for someone to be assigned to do it. I pointed out that I had been told it would be done as a matter of urgency. It *is* being treated as a matter of urgency, but they're busy.
So am I!
I rang the complaints line, waited for 35 minutes for it to be answered, and fell into - I'm not sure whether it was a Kafkaesque world or whether it was more Alice's Wonderland. Whatever it was, it was frustrating, bizarre, no help whatsoever. The person I spoke to thought I was talking about pensions, didn't seem to understand about assessments, and had me living in Buninyong, at an address that I have never lived at (although Ross does!!!!) I definitely don't understand that. Medicare, the Tax Office, the Electoral Office and various other Federal Government Departments know exactly where I live.
I rang the new owners of the care home to see what we could do about the bill for $32,000. Someone will call me back, although they haven't yet. I don't think I was the only person who had rung about similar issues!
Then, at Lindsey's suggestion, I rang the local office of our federal member of parliament. I would never have thought about doing this, but Lindsey knows a couple of people who work in MPs' offices and they had mentioned that they do this sort of thing. The person I spoke to understood what I was saying, asked pertinent questions and said she would look into it and get back to me. Although probably not this week.
A couple of people have suggested that Services Australia are deliberately messing me about for their own nefarious purposes. I can't see what they would gain by that. They will eventually have to reduce the amount Jim owed from July. And, as someone very wise once said to me, a long, long time ago, if you have to choose between conspiracy or incompetence - it's pretty much always incompetence.
Things haven't changed!!
My dealings with the State government have been much more straightforward. I got the $250 power allowance that Victorian residents are entitled to. It's not means tested but there are a couple of things you need to do to be eligible. I did them. The money came in. I applied for a small State grant for my solar panels. I filled in the form. The grant was made available. The solar panels arrived. I applied for a small State grant for a heat pump hot water service. The grant was made available. The heat pump is coming next week. Both these grants are means tested but there was no drama getting that sorted out.
The solar panels are working well. I checked my electricity usage yesterday. I don't do this very often but I do when I have new appliances, just to see how much power they use. And this is what the app showed me:
 |
| The 3 cents is the estimated supply charge No electricity coming in from the grid |
No comments:
Post a Comment