Tuesday 23 May 2017

Life with bankruptcy - year 2


I've been up to my eyeballs filling out the second Statement Of Income for the Australian Financial Securities Authority. Being bankrupt I have to do this so they can ascertain if I'm able to pay back any of the debt I incurred with the Commonwealth Bank the other year when David suffered that discrimination and lost his job. 

It left us right in the lurch scrambling for paperwork to satisfy Centrelink that he was entitled to at least the dole. He didn't even have a birth certificate for identity so we had to send in to Births, Deaths and Marriages in the city to get one issued which took weeks. Then Australia Post lost it and we had to get another one reissued. Then David's work failed to issue a notice of termination which Centrelink needed for him to get anything, so there was even more delays. In the end he went without anything for a full three months before getting a cent out of Centrelink.

All I was getting was the DSP, but as David had just moved in we went to Centrelink as a couple. So as soon as we did that Centrelink in all it's wisdom cut my payments down to a partnered pension well before David was even getting any payments at all. It left us with nothing, not even enough for the rent a fortnight. Centrelink just said he'd be backpaid from when he first applied once all the paperwork was sorted out (it took them a month BTW to do that) and for us to see a charity in the meantime. Seriously, after both of us working 30 years they told us that. It was just lucky I had a credit card with a big line of credit as it got to the point we were using it to pay the rent half the time.

Once he finally got on Newstart the situation was still very dire. My entire partnered pension went on the rent, leaving Newstart of less than $500 a fortnight to live off for both of us. It was diabolically impossible, and we had no choice but to keep using the credit card for basic living. In the end with my health David went on a Carer Payment pension for me, along with the Carers Allowance, and we finally had enough to survive. But it was impossible to pay anything back on the credit card, hence is why I was forced into bankruptcy.

So this Income Statement the gov wants off me each year (not sure how long, 3-5yrs) is a full comprehensive income and asset statement for the last twelve months. And they want everything, giving little more than a week for me to send in the completed form. Bank statements for the last month, Centrelink statements, last years tax return, just everything.

I've chosen email rather than snail mail to do it, but even without paper it still takes ages to get everything together. Each time I sit down and think I'll spend about 20 minutes on it the time stretches out to a couple of hours. Would be hopeless without the internet.

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