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BrendanH

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Brendan they are going to give you money for nothing once you get signed up.  Tell me how that is like RSA?  Yes the signing up takes time but hell it's NOTHING like RSA.  No smell, nobody standing on top of you etc etc.  Phone first (not during peak time and yes you will have to hold so pop the phone on speaker and put the tv on) and find if you all need to be there or just you.  For our family, my husband is registered and that covers the whole family.

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19 minutes ago, BrendanH said:

So, it is official - Centrelink is about as bad as any South African bureaucracy we have had to deal with. After waiting in the queue of over two hours on Friday we needed to leave due to another appointment. Yesterday (Monday) we went in again and got about half way through when their systems went down. We tried again this morning and they couldn't find our file online (Due to a misspelled surname...) and then apparently the system was down again with no notification...

 

So we will give them until Thursday to fix their systems and go in one again. Maybe fourth time is the charm.

 

 

I am pretty sure signing up with Centrelink is not compulsory.  You dont have to do it. 

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Government departments are bad all over the world, some worse than others. None are great. They are run by Gravy Train passengers so never expect to much. Think of it on the bright side, you are getting something from them (for free) so standing in the queue is worth it in the long run. Once you have registered you should be able to do everything else on line or via phone. If you went from here to SA you wouldn't get anything, even if you're a citizen

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2 minutes ago, rozellem said:

I am pretty sure signing up with Centrelink is not compulsory.  You dont have to do it. 

 

That is SO true!! Complaining that the "free money" queue is too long and inefficient. Gave me a good laugh :)

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5 minutes ago, RYLC said:

 

That is SO true!! Complaining that the "free money" queue is too long and inefficient. Gave me a good laugh :)

 

I am going to talk about the good and the bad of my experience.

 

You have probably been here for long enough to have forgotten but being here for just over a week dealing with cars, accommodation hunting, driver's licences, medicare, job hunting, etc. with an increasingly frustrated 7 year old in tow while shaking off the jet lag is difficult enough without having to deal with constant system issues, etc.

 

Wasting 3 mornings in a row due to inefficient and crashed systems is a massive frustration and seriously screws with plans.

 

So please don't be condescending.

 

 

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12 minutes ago, BrendanH said:

You have probably been here for long enough to have forgotten

You don't forget. You get reminded every time when your income tax comes out of your pay cheque (I pay roughly $48 000/year). Then you get annoyed about anybody that complains about not getting their free handouts fast enough or not getting enough. Nothing personal against you, Brendan but the benefit system here is a touchy subject about who gets what and how much.

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4 minutes ago, Peterthe1 said:

You don't forget. You get reminded every time when your income tax comes out of your pay cheque (I pay roughly $48 000/year). Then you get annoyed about anybody that complains about not getting their free handouts fast enough or not getting enough. Nothing personal against you, Brendan but the benefit system here is a touchy subject about who gets what and how much.

 

Exactly Peterthe1.  VERY touchy subject!

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34 minutes ago, Peterthe1 said:

You don't forget. You get reminded every time when your income tax comes out of your pay cheque (I pay roughly $48 000/year). Then you get annoyed about anybody that complains about not getting their free handouts fast enough or not getting enough. Nothing personal against you, Brendan but the benefit system here is a touchy subject about who gets what and how much.

 

Another perspective is that the Centrelink system which cost billions to develop and maintain should not be down for more than two days (And possibly more often.) costing who knows how much more in lost time and productivity of citizens and government staff.

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You are right. Unfortunately you may have come in on the wrong day. I haven't had any problems when dealing with the Government departments here (touch wood) and find them to be on par with other European Government departments that I have dealt with, ie UK, Germany and France. But as I have previously said, Government departments are all bad, some more than others. Government staff are polishing chairs with butts, there are a few that actually work but most don't. Very few government staff are productive. Same all over the world, although in some countries nobody does anything but draw a wage.

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Well, this got ugly fast.

 

I've been here a while and even back in the days of the immortal Chzaau and his sidekick, I've never seen a thread deteriorate this fast. Especially with everyone knowing what Brendan is going through, maybe he was a bit bitchy, but the normally even-tempered crowd hasn't really covered itself in glory.

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Wow...ok.

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Sorry to hear about all of this Brendan, I think the emotional stress is taking it's toll now as well. Just know that the rest of us still here in SA are behind you (literally and figuratively haha) 

 

as RedPanda would say: "sterkte" because you need to be strong to make it!

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Yep, let's cut everyone some slack. I'm not wild about the fact that so many of my dollars going on social payouts but I accept that is how we keep society "safe" so I acccept it.

 

I know how horrible it is to spend time in fruitless queues, but if I need to I do. 

 

Hopefully all newcomers find work quickly so that they can change perspective as those of us fortunate enough to pay tax would not want to be in the position of relying on centrelink payments if we can help it.

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I think it is time for everyone to get off their soap boxes and get on with their lives. You do not beat someone with your attitude when they have just arrived and have all the admin to go through. I never saw Brendan saying that he was going to get some assistance, he said he was surprised that he was eligible. I agree with him, when you first arrive, all the little bits help. For those that have been here a number of years, I am pretty sure the exchange rate you got was not 10 or 11 to 1!

 

Brendan, I definitely feel for you, I have had to deal with Centrelink face to face on one occasion and it is not something I look forward to repeating anytime soon. Also, Iit was just me, I did not have a bored I year old in tow....

Edited by Mara
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I must say that the venom and vitriol took me a bit by surprise. 

 

This journal is about me posting my negative and positive experiences trying to settle in. Partly because I enjoy summing up my experiences as it helps me process what is happening and partly because I hope that people can learn from them and that they prove helpful to people who come afterwards.

 

As for the people who think I am stealing food out of the mouths of their family - I am a pragmatic guy and I am willing to approach this from a logical and analytical perspective.

 

So far we have injected $60,000 into the Australian economy and plan on injecting an additional $40,000 as we free up more investments from South Africa. I have done some reading and my family is entitled to a $6,000 a year allowance via Centrelink. I am, as it stands, still very much a profit centre for the Australian government and by extension - you. So your anger towards me is somewhat misplaced.

 

 

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HI BrendanH. i'm with you on this one. please our keep sharing your unvarnished experiences  so that those following behind you can learn from them. sorry about the vitriol but i thought it would be good to speak out for those of us who appreciate this kind of thing. hopefully, there's lots of us on this forum.

 

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Well said BrendanH, and with that I hope the nastiness will end!

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Hi all. I think an apology is in order here as some comments may have been taken in the wrong context. I'm sorry if some of the comments were taken up wrong, there definitely was no intention, on my behalf, to offend any one. Here is my explanation on my comments which will hopefully clear things up.

19 hours ago, Mara said:

I never saw Brendan saying that he was going to get some assistance, he said he was surprised that he was eligible. I agree with him, when you first arrive, all the little bits help.

I did mention earlier in the discussion that he should check with Centrelink what he is entitled to. I was informed that I was entitled to more than what I was originally told so I thought it might be helpful if I pass this sort of information on to Brendan

 

On ‎02‎/‎02‎/‎2016 at 10:51 AM, BrendanH said:

So, it is official - Centrelink is about as bad as any South African bureaucracy we have had to deal with.

Due to the amount of different people that read this forum (there are actually local Aussies that read this forum), this sort of comment is best not put on here as some will view this in a dim light and it opens up the old argument about immigrants coming here to milk the system. I agree that you should get what you're entitled to but as you are a guest here, running down the country in any way is not a good idea. By all means, you're entitled to your opinion but be aware where you air it as sometimes airing it in the wrong place can affect everybody. I have mentioned on this forum before that one persons comments can affect a group as a whole, SAFFAs in this instance. At my work it happens fairly often that a group is discriminated against due to one persons comments. (Racism is normally the big one here.).In the bigger cities this sort of behaviour is less noticeable due the larger proportion of immigrants to locals whereas out here in the country the immigrant group is fairly small and thus receives more discrimination in the these  circumstances.

 

On ‎02‎/‎02‎/‎2016 at 0:24 PM, BrendanH said:

Another perspective is that the Centrelink system which cost billions to develop and maintain should not be down for more than two days (And possibly more often.) costing who knows how much more in lost time and productivity of citizens and government staff.

I agreed with you on this one.

 

18 hours ago, BrendanH said:

As for the people who think I am stealing food out of the mouths of their family - I am a pragmatic guy and I am willing to approach this from a logical and analytical perspective.

 

So far we have injected $60,000 into the Australian economy and plan on injecting an additional $40,000 as we free up more investments from South Africa. I have done some reading and my family is entitled to a $6,000 a year allowance via Centrelink. I am, as it stands, still very much a profit centre for the Australian government and by extension - you. So your anger towards me is somewhat misplaced.

I definitely didn't say you're stealing food from any body and I'm not angry, but as I mentioned earlier people don't look at what you're bringing here but look at what you're complaining about and getting. As I mentioned, the benefit system here is a very touchy subject due to the large amount of abuse of the system. In some peoples eyes, your comment will automatically put you into the abusers group (even though you're not).

Let me know if there is any points that I may have missed which need more explaining but I think I hopefully have cleared up any confusion.

Anyway Brendan, I hope you settle into your new life without to many problems and hopefully there are no hard feelings.

 

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On 2/2/2016 at 10:24 AM, BrendanH said:

 

Another perspective is that the Centrelink system which cost billions to develop and maintain should not be down for more than two days (And possibly more often.) costing who knows how much more in lost time and productivity of citizens and government staff.

Not always true mate I am afraid to say! I build gazillion dollar systems for a living and sometimes they do just go belly up. Most recently I had to do emergency surgery on a "small" $250 million dollar build after a Big Four Consulting company stuffed up the failover from HA! During a prod test! Well, all I can say is bye bye sleep for 30 hours straight, then 4 hours sleep and another 30 hour stretch. That little incident put 4 of my best in medical care for three days...it sucks but it happens. I am sorry it had to happen to you when you landed. :blink::PB)

 

Welcome to Aus!! Sorry to hear about the 7 year old dominating from the back seat! :) Hope you settle in soon matey. 

Edited by SurferMan
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Hi Brendan

 

I can imagine how frustrating it must be for you to have to go back numerous times with a 7 year old. I am not looking forward to the admin that we will have to run around and do with twin toddlers in tow-eek so I feel you. As it is they give me a run for my money when I take them home from crèche everyday!

 

I hope that things only get better for you from here onwards.

 

I look forward to updates from new arrivals as hopefully that will be us in months to come.

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My wife had an op the other day. Dad had all three kids on 3 outings in one day, and the weeks total at 9 outings. (We home school) They are improved models of their father. Lets say i aged a decade in 24 hours....:P

Edited by SurferMan
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@BrendanH Considering that 'better run systems' is one of the reasons I want to move to Aus, I appreciate the dose of reality that your posts are administering. It would be a sad thing for me if SAAustralia became so sanitised from any wrong word said against Australia that it started to paint it as an unrealistic Utopia. That's a sure way to have many disgruntled new arrivals.

I think it's important to remember that life has ups and downs regardless of where you are, and to keep in mind the distinction between 'nothing bad happens' and 'bad things are less likely to happen'. Telling people about your frustrations is good and healthy(for you and them), and I'm sure that other immigrants who read it on an off day might think: Hey, I'm not doing so bad, that guy survived it, so can I.

 

I guess the light in which you see Centrelink depends very much on where you stand, and it's good to keep in mind that not all taxes go towards handouts, some go to public health, that is actually worth something, some go towards public transport, that benefits everyone regardless of whether you use it or not, since it removes loads of vehicles from the roads...which are also maintained in a good state, and some taxes go towards supporting good public schools and help fund universities, and go into city planning and disaster prevention, so really, I don't think the part of a person's taxes that help support those who need it, is so big that taxpayers need to get all huffy about the people who get assistance. And if there are people who migrate and never make use of it, good on them, that is their personal choice.

Look, for sure, there will people who take advantage of the system, there always are, but I still think that if you provide a service you should do it well. Making it frustrating to access a service should not be used as a disincentive to using the service. If they want fewer people to use it, they should write the rules accordingly.

(For my personal perspective on this: I will find out if I qualify for any assistance when I land(if I do, great, if I don't, that is fine too), and then in due time when I find employment I will pay my own taxes. And on balance I will probably be a net gain into the system.)

So thanks for the posts BendanH, I found value in them. ;) 

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On 2/2/2016 at 11:59 AM, BrendanH said:
On 2/2/2016 at 11:47 AM, RYLC said:

 

That is SO true!! Complaining that the "free money" queue is too long and inefficient. Gave me a good laugh :)

 

I am going to talk about the good and the bad of my experience.

 

You have probably been here for long enough to have forgotten but being here for just over a week dealing with cars, accommodation hunting, driver's licences, medicare, job hunting, etc. with an increasingly frustrated 7 year old in tow while shaking off the jet lag is difficult enough without having to deal with constant system issues, etc.

 

Wasting 3 mornings in a row due to inefficient and crashed systems is a massive frustration and seriously screws with plans.

 

So please don't be condescending.

 

 

 

 

SO looks like my account was hacked yesterday :(  Not good *sigh*  Note to self: log out on all devices.

 

Hopefully things worked out now.

 

 

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1 minute ago, RYLC said:

 

 

SO looks like my account was hacked yesterday :(  Not good *sigh*  Note to self: log out on all devices.

 

Hopefully things worked out now.

 

 


Log out everywhere, and change your password. (glad you found out though.)

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