East Coast Tiger
Coach
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A bloke I know is going through a difficult family situation and told me all about it the other day. Now, the details aren't really relevant to the question, but I can't help but feel it makes the case for action stronger, on moral grounds if not legal. So this is the story:
His wife has two kids from a previous marriage, a daughter and a son. He owns a house in NSW where they previously lived, in which the two kids now live, along with the daughter's boyfriend, while he and his wife live interstate after moving for a job. The daughter is heavily pregnant and due any time. She recently told her mother that she wants her to have nothing to do with the child when it is born because she reckons she was a terrible mother to her. She wants the baby to go to a montessori school when it is older and refuses to get it immunised etc, not that this is relevant but anyway. They had been letting her and the boyfriend live in the house rent free until he found a job. They also paid the electricity and phone bills and pay TV. He has yet to get a job after several months even though he could easily get one in his line of work. They also treat the brother like crap and order him about and unfortunately he is of such a timid nature he doesn't seem to stand up for himself. So after this phone call to the mother the parents have told them they have to start paying rent, change the power and phone to their name etc. Despite saying they would do these things they have not done so. The parents have now cut the phone and pay TV off, but not the power. It also turns out that when the daughter took a trip overseas to be with the boyfriend a year or two ago the mother paid for it with a credit card. I don't know whether the daughter promised to pay her back or not but now she is having to pay it off. Her husband didn't now about this until now. Now all of that is a mess but not necessarily anyone else's business, except that it appears the daughter and boyfriend are claiming rent assistance, even though they have never paid rent, and she is claiming unemployment even though she has never looked for work and clearly has no intention of doing so. Firstly it seems ridiculous that this could happen. SUrely they must have to prove something to Centrelink, especially about the rent. Also the boyfriend isn't an Australian citizen. I don't know whether he receives any welfare or not. They'll be getting the baby bonus and God knows how much more from Centrelink in the near future as it is.
Apart from the obvious advice one could give to the bloke in question in lieu of the way he and his wife have been treated, the other issue is, should these people be dobbed in? It seems to me like there is a hell of a lot of people working the system and the amount of money being spent on them must be astronomical. Has anyone here ever dobbed someone in to Centrelink or whatever? Is it fair to do so even if someone from the outside looking in doesn't know absolutely every detail and can't be sure they are in the wrong, even if superficial evidence suggests they are?
His wife has two kids from a previous marriage, a daughter and a son. He owns a house in NSW where they previously lived, in which the two kids now live, along with the daughter's boyfriend, while he and his wife live interstate after moving for a job. The daughter is heavily pregnant and due any time. She recently told her mother that she wants her to have nothing to do with the child when it is born because she reckons she was a terrible mother to her. She wants the baby to go to a montessori school when it is older and refuses to get it immunised etc, not that this is relevant but anyway. They had been letting her and the boyfriend live in the house rent free until he found a job. They also paid the electricity and phone bills and pay TV. He has yet to get a job after several months even though he could easily get one in his line of work. They also treat the brother like crap and order him about and unfortunately he is of such a timid nature he doesn't seem to stand up for himself. So after this phone call to the mother the parents have told them they have to start paying rent, change the power and phone to their name etc. Despite saying they would do these things they have not done so. The parents have now cut the phone and pay TV off, but not the power. It also turns out that when the daughter took a trip overseas to be with the boyfriend a year or two ago the mother paid for it with a credit card. I don't know whether the daughter promised to pay her back or not but now she is having to pay it off. Her husband didn't now about this until now. Now all of that is a mess but not necessarily anyone else's business, except that it appears the daughter and boyfriend are claiming rent assistance, even though they have never paid rent, and she is claiming unemployment even though she has never looked for work and clearly has no intention of doing so. Firstly it seems ridiculous that this could happen. SUrely they must have to prove something to Centrelink, especially about the rent. Also the boyfriend isn't an Australian citizen. I don't know whether he receives any welfare or not. They'll be getting the baby bonus and God knows how much more from Centrelink in the near future as it is.
Apart from the obvious advice one could give to the bloke in question in lieu of the way he and his wife have been treated, the other issue is, should these people be dobbed in? It seems to me like there is a hell of a lot of people working the system and the amount of money being spent on them must be astronomical. Has anyone here ever dobbed someone in to Centrelink or whatever? Is it fair to do so even if someone from the outside looking in doesn't know absolutely every detail and can't be sure they are in the wrong, even if superficial evidence suggests they are?
