Money, money, money

I would like to say to all that an increase of $10 a fortnight was all the increase I got being a couple. I think it is very sad that we cannot do anything apart from paying our bills,what little food we buy, cost of food increases weekly. The single pensioners I have spoke with are all very happy not so for the couples. This causes divisions. I hope our government sleeps well at night not having to worry about food and lodgings. God help us all.

Having been a carer for the past 12 years, I was very excited to recently receive the increase in pension by the Australian Government. Singles now receive $335.95 and couples $506.50 per week.

After so much lobbying and fighting for the basic rights all carers deserve, our voices were finally heard and the small increase in our pensions I hope, is the start towards better support and more financial assistance for carers.

To have on top of this, we received the annual indexed payments of $600 for Carer Payment and $600 for Carer Allowance, this is a step in right direction.

I do believe there is still so much more to be done and we need to continue to fight for more financial assistance. If only politicians lived in the life of a carer for a few weeks and had to make do with the mininum amount of money we receive to care for our loved ones, while still having to pay some of the medical expenses incurred for our loved ones disablity, they would soon realise that most carers are on stuggle road and can't make ends meet. Why should we be placed in this situation, saving the government in excess of $30.5 billion dollars in unpaid care by caring for our loved ones, while we burn ourselves to the ground as a carer and receive next to nothing for the role we play. Our health deteroriates and many carers find themselves stuggling to cope, burnt out, isolated and alone. It is a scary road for many carers. Alot of carers love what they do, but having to live on the pensions provided makes their lives unbearable and many carers find themselves depressed with no light at the end of the tunnel.

May the Parliamentary Inquiry Into Carers handed down in April, be the start for better support for carers and more financial assistance in the future.

One suggestion I have is to grade primary carers into 3 catergories. High care, medium care and low care. Some carers never leave the house, with their high care caring roles, providing 24 hour assistance, seven days a week for years on years and having to do everything for their loved one. They are constantly up throughout the night and very sleep deprived. With such heavy workloads, why should they be paid the same amount of money that a carer who provides low care. (Someone who can do things for themselves but needs a carer to help with only minor tasks). It is time to make the system fair. High care carers are burning out and receiving little assistance for their extraordinary role.

Will one day their service to community be rewarded? It truly is my hope and dream. I am sure high care carers would front up for an annual assessement at Centrelink if they were rewarded financially for what they do.

What about superannuation? Why is it compulsory for workers to receive the federal government mininum compulsory superannuation entitlement, which is there nest egg for retirement, but for a young carer like myself who has been caring since I was 22, I will not have any superannuation to grow old with after devoting my life to caring for my husband and saving government millions of dollars while caring for him. How is this fair? What is good for paid workers is good for unpaid carers! Come on Kevin Rudd, it is time to make things fair.

I have read the postings in each section of the website for Carer's Week. So many of the issues the authors have shared, have impacted on my life as a carer over many years. I agree strongly with most of the sentiments and feel extremely cynical about the system insulting carers with one week of openings by dignitaries, politicians saying 'well done' and the media paying lip service to the endless task of caring. Caring is compensated with next to no payment whilst carers become isolated, taken for granted, marginalised and disillusioned, often with no light at the end of the tunnel. Not to mention the pervasive erosion of wealth, through sacrificing their employment and superannuation.

As carers, we need to make a collective, concerted statement that cannot be ignored by the authorities and the community at large. There are so many lobby groups that are listened to by the authority and community due to their coordination, cohesion and appeals for action, en mass.

Sadly this year a mentor of mine who had two disabled sons took his and their lives after years of battles with bureaucracy. I often think of the last thing he said to me, 'never give up, you've got to keep fighting.'

I am a writer and have written a draft memoir about my carer journey, sent several letters to editors and written a few articles for publication on issues for carers.

I would like to prepare (edit / co-author) a book with Carers' stories, BY Carers. So often we are exposed to experts, professionals and academics who may be well meaning, but do not have first hand caring experience.

I am very happy to be contacted by anyone who wants to share their story for publication.

My email address is catherine@zuluaga.com.au

My name is Cheryl 3yrs ago my husband had an abscess on his spinal cord. He is now an incomplete quadriplegic. I work 3 days a week as a teacher and we have two children 20 and 25.
We have family in England but they don't want to know about our situation. I have found that the one and only thing that really works is my belief in our heavenly father. I have had enormous help from our church. I pray and meditate on Gods word and find that my faith has grown. One piece of advice I would say is that to pray and keep praying in all situations. The times when life seems just too much put your faith in the Lord and he will help you. God Bless Just give God a chance to minister to you in your situation.. you will be surprised at how he can bring people and make situations bearable.

This a letter I just wrote to our local M.P. I don't have time to write a revised one here.
My name is Janice Visser and I contacted your secretary on Monday to make an appointment to see you, as I haven’t heard back I hope you get this message.
I believe the St John of God Hospital, oncology, social worker has also sent you a letter.
This is my sad story which is probably better via E-Mail than through tears. Anyway my sister Sharon left her abusive and violent husband two years ago from Indonesia only to return home to be diagnosed with advanced stages of ovarian cancer. Sharon is a single mother with two beautiful little boys soon to turn three and four. She has been battling cancer with regular treatments of chemotherapy which makes her incredibly sick. Sharon’s best friend took on her carers role which really was caring for her two little boys as that’s where the immediate help was needed. This involved a few hours a day to help with feeding bathing etc and more after chemo as Sharon was bedridden for up to a week. This unfortunately took its toll on their friendship and she (the carer )sustained a back injury and after 20 months she wanted to resume a normal life.
So Sharon was left without a carer for approximately six weeks whereby the social worker made every attempt to find another carer and funding to help. She did manage to get some help from a carers agency for about six days of that period. Unfortunately as helpful as they were, having new faces appear each day only distressed the children and therefore distressed Sharon. So those six weeks were incredibly stressful for our whole family as none of us live close by and felt helpless to help. Sharon’s ultimate goal was to stay with her children at whatever cost and to remain in her home.
I have four children myself and made every attempt to get down to her and help where I could which put extra stress on my partner who was left holding the fort. Anyway believing that I would receive the carers payment that the previous carer was getting, I felt the only option was to leave my job, bring Sharon and her boys here and look after them myself which is what I did but not after incredible stress of organising, purchasing, major ground works done( much to the local earth moving company's horror at this wet time of year) and relocating them here in a transportable.
Then I applied for the Carers Allowance which I got and which is $50-00 a week. The misunderstanding is that there are two payments and the other is means tested and as my partner, My partner is a teacher and earns more than sixty thousand which makes us ineligible for the payment. When the social worker told me the payment wasn’t means tested I presumed I would receive the same payment as the previous carer which is approximately $350-00 and would nearly cover my lost wages, and on that belief and the terrible situation of my sister I left my job.
Now Sharon is here I am caring not only for her but her two children 24 hours 7 days a week as well as my own family and by not getting the payment my partner is expected to support nine people. I was a stay at home Mum and we struggled financially but we believed staying at home with my children was the best option especially as my oldest is Autistic, but when she went to high school I went back to work as a teacher assistant part-time to enable our children to be able to have outer school options such as sport, venturers, ambulance cadets etc and to help take the pressure off our bills etc. Now we not only have the extra costs of the transportable home for Sharon but I am out of pocket my wages and to find out that we can’t get the carers payment has devastated me and my partner because invariably it is our family who will suffer, as if watching my sister die and the extra strain on our family caring for two toddlers isn’t enough.
When it comes down to basics all I am asking for is to receive the same payment the previous carer was receiving even though I am doing it full time, not only for Sharon but two children as well. I have been sick for 8 weeks with bronchitis, pneumonia etc which was prolonged due to all the stress and two weeks ago my partner was taken to hospital with heart attack symptoms due to stress. If I say that we can’t do this Sharon will have to find another carer as well as foster carers for her two boys at a much greater cost than the payment I am requesting. Not only that, having her boys taken away will only distress both her and her boys, they are what she lives for. So by myself caring for all three I am saving the government a considerable amount of money and anguish on my sisters behalf but at the detriment of my own family. She only has four months to live and then it will all change anyway but we can’t survive without my wages or similar payment. My partner has made an incredible gesture to accept them into our lives but then to find out that we are out of pocket and he has to support nine people will only put a great stress on our family not to mention health costs as we struggle with not only the financial problem but the emotional and physical stress and strain. Sharon wishes to die at home and never be parted from her boys so what are we to do?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? HELP please there must be someone we can appeal to change this ridiculous rule in our circumstances.
Thank you, I would still love to meet with you if you have any spare time as I realise you must be very busy.
Yours sincerely,
Janice Visser-Cook

Hello, my name is Joy Roze and I am a Carer Ambassador for Carers Australia representing Queensland.

The financial impact that Caring has had on my life can be summed up in one word "profound"

I have been a Carer for 21 years now and am a sole parent of three children two of whom are now young adults. I have two boys and a girl and it is my boys who are affected by the disability autism. My youngest son Jayden also has a mild intellectual impairment and often expresses extreme challenging behaviour.
In fact Jayden's behaviour has been so challenging over the years that he was constantly excluded from various schools that he had been enrolled in. This meant that whilst he was not in school, I was unable to work outside of the home and even when I was able to work outside of the home my Caring responsibilities prevented me from working more than ten - twelve hours a week, so my primary income was through Centrelink payments, which is a very low income, an income that falls below the minimum award wage for the average Australian worker.

There was no respite support available to us in the early years so I eventually felt forced out of the part-time job that I had at the time.
When respite support was finally made available to us several years later I found it difficult to find support workers willing to work with Jayden. To make a long story (one spanning 15yrs) short it ended up that no-one would work with my son because he became far too violent.

I am now 46 years old and have no superannuation available to me upon retirement age. I have developed a disability of my own, which prevents me from working full time so am still relying on Centrelink payments as my only source of income.

I continue to care for all three of my children yet look forward to the day when I will be able to get out of the Welfare trap and start earning a decent living.

Joy