I received the message below from Jim and he would like to know if anyone else has had 'school fee allowance' deducted from their child's Abstudy allowance. I have Jim's permission to edit what he sent me and I have done so to a minor degree. If anyone on the list also has this problem, please contact me and I will put you in touch with Jim. Trudy ===================================== Hi Trudy. You may be interested to hear (if you haven't already) about the directive by DEETYA to Centerlink to make a third party payment of $150 in school fees to schools out of the normal Abstudy payments. On December 17 a letter was sent to parents from Centerlink purporting to tell us what we HAVE to do in order to ensure that our children will continue to receive Abstudy. In bold type under the heading WHAT YOU HAVE TO DO: quote: You MUST complete the questions on the back of this letter, Sign the declaration and return to it to Centerlink as soon as possible. Again in bold type, if you do not return this letter, you may not get Abstudy for your child in 2000. Then it goes on to say that they will use the info gathered to, quote: see if you can be paid. Bear in mind that most parents have already made application on the normal form. The questions: 1. Do you want to get Abstudy for your child in 2000? - yes/no. 2. Do you want Centerlink to pay your school fees allowance to 'school name', if you answer No Centerlink will will pay your school fees allowance as soon as you provide proof that you have paid school fees for your child. 3. In 2000 will 'childsname' go to 'schoolname'? If you answer 'no' please write name of school below. (again the normal form had already been processed and responded to by centerlink) 4. Are you the person who cares for 'childsname'? If not who does? Then they ask you to tick one of three boxes. Is 'childsname' 1) an aboriginal 2) Torresstrait Islander or 3) both? 1. I agree that information already provided by me to Centerlink can be used to, where required, (by who and for what reason?) to help make a decision about Abstudy for 'childsname' for 2000. This I believe is an attempt to remove the right of people to determine the amount of school fees to be paid by them - the level of which is at the moment determined by agreement with the parents at the local school level p&c or aspa committees - not to mention the fact that school fees in NSW are not compulsory! 2. I understand that I am responsible for the payment of any expenses associated with school. 3. I understand that to keep getting paid Abstudy the student must go to school. (Sorry I thought Abstudy was to pay for a party for me and few drinkin buddys) Must they continue to assume that Aboriginal family's don't care about their children's education! 4. I will notify Centerlink of any changes to this info within 14 days. It can take much longer than that for snail mail to arrive particularly if you live in a remote community i.e. Bobby's Yard story on 730 Report. Another bureaucratic trap for the unwary. I discussed this letter with my partner and we decided to ignore it and see what happened. Well as we assumed the threat was a false one and our kids were granted Abstudy, minus the $150 fees. I am at this moment trying to find out where this piece of bureaucratic bullying originated and how these bastards believe they can simply deduct 300 bucks from a family's annual back to school budget without permission. Our school is trying to find out as well as they haven't been informed if or when they will receive the money! Sorry if this all seems a bit disjointed but I am taking calls from Centerlink as I write. Have just been informed that it was a cabinet decision! Taken late last year. My son tells me that he was informed by his teachers that the fee surplus will be used by the school to provide uniforms and transport fees etc. Why don't they just give us blankets and a ration book and be done with it! Trudy it may be helpful if you know any one else with the same problem particularly if they answered no on the declaration form re forwarding fees directly to there schools only to hav'em deducted anyway. ------------------------------------------------------- RecOzNet2 has a page @ http://www.green.net.au/recoznet2 and is archived at http://www.mail-archive.com/ To unsubscribe from this list, mail [EMAIL PROTECTED], and in the body of the message, include the words: unsubscribe announce or click here mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20announce This posting is provided to the individual members of this group without permission from the copyright owner for purposes of criticism, comment, scholarship and research under the "fair use" provisions of the Federal copyright laws and it may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner, except for "fair use." RecOzNet2 is archived for members @ http://www.mail-archive.com/recoznet2%40paradigm4.com.au/
