Reposting : I would like this to be posted anonymously if you could, please. I am one of those single mothers pushed onto Newstart from the parenting payment. This has been a hard enough transition, losing that extra, much needed money, as is but I find myself under an even bigger mountain of extreme financial strain due to the fact I have enrolled in a course to hopefully assist me in building my own small business at some point. I have been doing a course with my employment agency for the past few months, as per my employment pathway plan, it has been easy and cost me nothing because they supply the books required, but in order to expand on that course and fulfill my obligations so as to not get my centrelink pittance cut off I have taken on another course which will in fact assist me much better in finding gainful employment. While this is something I am incredibly excited to be doing the cost of this course will be coming out of my pocket. $150 p/f out of my pocket to be exact. When I enrolled in the course the person who enrolled me told me I would be able to apply for a supplement to assist me with those costs and make it less of a strain on me. After I spent 2 hours on hold to centrelink today I tried to find out more about this alleged supplement because, as we can all relate, I am under extreme financial stress and often find myself going without meals for me up to 3-4 times a fortnight (GREAT for weight loss by the way.) After being bounced around from the Newstart section the the AusStudy section here is what I have learned. You CAN get a supplement to help with the out of pocket costs of any course you are doing but only IF you are still on PPS. If you are on Newstart you are not entitled to any extra assistance at all. AusStudy is considerably less money than Newstart and is really not a viable option for someone who is a full time carer if the course you are doing is deemed a short course, which is apparently the category the course I am doing, falls into. My job service provider can not help me with the costs of this course because it is a $3500 course. The only thing they are able to help me with (which they did) was the $250 deposit. My next at least 9-18 months (which is how long I see this course taking me in between my parental studies while also trying to find some form of work) is going to consist of me trying to find a way to make the $550 I get for Newstart cover my $200 p/f community housing rent, $150 course fees $100 p/f phone/internet bill, $70p/f power bill payments and $90 p/f gas bill payment and find some way to feed both myself and my young teenage son on $40 p/f. All I can say is thank goodness for my FTB so we can BOTH eat at least every other week because I know only he will be eating for those weeks of Newstart payment. Let the stress, fear and absolute emotional strain begin, I guess.
Posted on: Thu, 31 Oct 2013 06:10:22 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015