| Dancing
Isis Dance ! A
View of the World Have
you ever stood in a centre link queue? I do it once a fortnight. When
I was first promoted from Sole Parenting Payment to the New Start program I was
there once a day for a few weeks. The auspicious day comes when your last child
turns 16 (which was 16 months ago). Right at the time when the child is becoming
an adult and they want to eat well, dress well, play hard and need a lot of attention
to get them through the last years of their schooling, you get this promotion Being
on Parenting Payment is a piece of cake compared to New Start. I used to send
a form in every 3 months and every now and then, have to go in and see someone.
I would either have an appointment, where I would sit in the waiting area for
a short amount of time or if I stood in the queue it was a separate queue to the
general enquires and New Start queues. But not any more, they have become one
queue. The
other thing that happens with this promotion, is that you lose your Family Allowance.
The child now gets a Youth Allowance instead, which is half of the amount that
the family payment was. The good thing is that it gets paid to me because I am
her carer. The unfortunate thing about this allowance is that some kids end up
leaving home thinking that they can make a better life than home life with $165
a fortnight and end up in all kinds of trouble.
Being on New Start requires
that you become a part of the workforce. I have always been partially self-employed
doing what I love best — dancing, teaching, performing and life modelling. Try
going to a job recruitment centre, which is also a requirement for New Start and
tell your prospective case manager that you are a visual and performing artist
and an Egyptian dance teacher. Some of them have been very rude. Some have laughed
and some have been great. But nowhere in their organisation is there a category
that fits people like me. We just don't exist in the REAL world.
Back
to the queue, at first it was so depressing. I believe, that if anyone ever researched
the effects that standing in a Centre Link queue, week after week, had on people,
they would find, that this exercise would attribute to a certain percentage of
suicides. This is no joke.
The other day I was standing in the queue
with about 20 people ahead of me, I had my crocheting with me to keep me occupied.
My crocheting facilitated a conversation with a drug affected woman standing in
front of me. She recounted to me that, as a child she was taught to crochet and
the things she had made for her babies. A woman walked in. She looked at the queue
she looked at her watch she asked if there was a different queue, I said no this
is it. She was obviously in a hurry and obviously did not regularly frequent this
queue. Maybe she hadn’t been in since the time when there were separate queues.
She huffed and puffed and said she'd be back in the morning. I told her it would
probably be the same, unless she queued up out side before 8.30 am and waited
for the doors to open. Then she would have to stand in the cold.
Some
of the staff are great. They even acknowledge that the system stinks and try to
treat us with some kind of empathy. But they are understaffed and often don’t
know what is going on themselves. Some treat you like a number. You ring with
a problem - like your payment has been cut off, because your form that you sent
in, instead of delivering it in person, because you are attending NEIS, a centre
link approved activity did not get to them on time. I don’t ring the 132850 number
I have a direct number. I kept all the direct numbers that I have been given on
file so I can talk to my Centre Link office personally, I now know their names.
I know the ones that are on the ball and the ones that say, yes, they will fax
that to you straight away and don’t.
The other day I had lost my form
due to this big stuff up we’ve been having, so I went in and stood in the queue
for 15 minutes. When I got to the top, I was given the form, which take less than
a minute to fill out. I began to fill it out at the counter and the guy behind
the counter made me take it away to fill in and stand at the end of the queue
again. I protested because I had a doctor’s appointment in 20 mins and that I
was already running late, his answer was, ‘so does every one else’. He needs to
stand in that queue. Everyone who works in Centre link needs to do Queue duty
for at least a day. The customer satisfaction and communication skills that I
am learning in the NEIS course very rarely exist in the Centre Link office.
Some would say that we are lucky to live in a country that has social services.
We should be so lucky. I am sure that some of you would think there shouldn't
be a Dole and that people are just lazy etc. etc. we all know the story in one
form or another. But I say that people need to be taken care of and that is what
will make a difference. That is what will change their lives and perhaps give
them a chance to become a functioning member of the community. If we are lucky
enough to have social services then we should be lucky enough to be treated like
we are lucky and not with disdain. Yes
there are people that will stand in that queue forever, that is the way it is.
Some people for one reason or another haven’t got what it takes to get out. That
is OK I would rather those people be supported by my taxes than to be paying for
bombs. Food not bombs that is what I say. (And on that note if you would like
to support "Food not Bombs" They are a group that give food to some
of those people that share my queue in The Fitzroy Centre Link. You can contact
them by going to the front of the High Rise Flats in Brunswick St at around 6pm
on a Monday, where they will be giving out food.)
I am lucky I have
the incentive and the support and the know-how, to apply to do the NEIS course.
Which I plan to pass and which will support me for a year and at the end of that
year I plan to be like that woman who walked in - just visiting. But I will know
the story and I will wait in that queue with every one else.
www.dancingisis.com
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