Friday, October 16, 2009
quicko: centrelink
I really haven't got a good handle on this, but basically it sounds to me like welfare for almost everybody without the stigma. It seems there's lots of free money for anyone who's not a full-time employee -- i.e., students (get paid while they're in school!!), people who don't make lots of money, people who are laid off, people who are fired, people who don't really like to work, people who are on holiday and need a bit of extra cash, etc. Evidently lots of people take it (why wouldn't you?!) and nobody thinks anything of it.
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2 comments:
In the US we say "If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is." I would wonder what kind of strings are attached, such as high interest rates to pay it back?
I’m going to have to stop you there, Kim. I think you may have been on the North Shore a little too long.
Contrary to what people who don’t need it will tell you, government support is actually ridiculously difficult to qualify for. Centrelink is the office that handles that sort of thing, and the red tape you need to bust through to get anywhere in there is more or less infinite.
It’s probably true that there is less of a stigma associated with it here than there is in the US, but I suspect the general feeling is that if you’ve jumped through enough hoops to qualify for assistance you probably deserve it.
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