Movable Nu($tart)
Wednesday, 09 November, 2005
Today I rang Centrelink to find out when my Austudy payments stop. “I've got a job lined up but I probably won't start until January,” I said. The lady I spoke to said, “Well, since you're over 21 and you're not studying anymore, we can put you on Newstart Allowance for December if you like. But you will have to apply for 10 jobs per fortnight.”
“Why do I have to do that?” I asked. “I already have a job lined up.”
“You have to because it's an unemployment benefit and that's one of the requirements of receiving the benefit.”
This struck me as being quite ridiculous, not to mention deceptive. Could you imagine me saying to a prospective employer who has already got piles and piles of job applications to sort through, “I'm applying for this job so I can get Newstart but I don't actually want it because I've actually got another job lined up but it doesn't start for a month or so”? Is Newstart actually worth it?
Well, Newstart is up to $404 per fortnight. Austudy is up to $236 per fortnight. I'll still be working for Matthias Media right through December but I only do 6 hours a week for them which is peanuts, really. Is it worth grovelling through the job application process up to 20 times for the sake of money? Should I be looking for work in December instead? (I see my holiday evaporating up in smoke right before my eyes.) Should we just dip into our savings and sit tight to get through? (That's what savings are there for, right? Times of emergency.)
I've always felt that decisions I've made on the basis of money have invariably been bad ones. For example: the decision to take on indexing work the week I took annual leave and to pack up the house so we would be ready to move (annual leave should be for rest); the decision to work full-time for three months more after Ben started MTS (Ben found the transition very hard and I wasn't around to support him and the extra money I earned was spent on replacing the engine in our car); the decision to move into my aunt's house so that we wouldn't have to pay any rent while we studied at college (and then she got sick and stayed in Australia instead of going back to Hong Kong and I wasn't coping and thought it would be better if Ben and I had our own space).
I hate thinking about money. I hate worrying about it. Next year, I know I will definitely have 3 days per week of work but the 4th is not guaranteed. Centrelink say that if I earn over $600/fortnight, Ben's Austudy will be cut by 70%. I'd rather work less but it seems to be in our best interests for me to work more.
Recently I read this article and was quite challenged by it:
Two years into their marriage Emma and Andrew Crauford realized they were both working too hard. What was left at the end of each week was two very tired, grumpy people who had nothing left to give each other.
New research to be launched later this month backs the Crauford's observations—one of the most profound problems facing Australian marriages is the conflict between home and work.
“We look back now and are thankful that we saw it happening,” says Emma. “We realized that if things didn't change, we would wake up in 15 years and find out that we no longer knew, or for that matter, loved each other.”
I don't want that to happen to us. I already know that I'm only just getting by as it is: I'm far too busy, I'm not getting enough sleep, I'm perpetually stressed, I don't have enough time to see family or friends or to be there for them ... sometimes I feel like I'm not even there for Ben. (He's the main reason why I'm not continuing with college even though I possibly could.)
So what do I do? Trust God, trust God ... keep thinking and praying ... do the figures and then throw the budget out the window. Every time I make one, we never stick to it and we haven't gone into the red yet. Probably not sensible economics but it seems to work ...
Blinks:
A way of funding writing in the future: pitch and idea and get people to support it.
Place where you can hire play equipment for parties, etc.
How to recalibrate the home button on your iPhone.
Unsolicited manuscripts accepted by Pan Macmillan with certain conditions.
Thought Balloon is a group blog in which the writers tackle a new theme every week? month? with one-page scripts. This URL is for their Phonogram ones.
How to sew a zipper on a knitted garment.
Issues organised by tale.
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Hi Karen, we had the same experience with Centrelink when my husband finished uni and didn’t start mts for a month. It seems crazy doesn’t it! The thing he hated the most was the stupid seminar at centrelink that he had to go to. Luckily because he was only on it for such a short time they didn’t make him do the jobseeker diary.
We couldn’t afford not to have newstart though and so he had to apply for jobs. Some people just apply for jobs they don’t want, other people just ring places and say “got any work?” and that supposedly counts as having looked for work… it all seems pretty dodgy.
I think from a Christian point of view it’s better to actually apply properly, but I reckon to satisfy centrelink and my conscience I would jump onto seek.com or something and submit the required number of applications but explain in the cover letter that I was only looking for one months work. If you did that you probably won’t even get a call back from any of them because you’ve told them you’re not going to stick around, but at least that way you’ve put in a proper application but all without too much fuss.
Good luck with it though!
Hi Karen. Very sorry to read about how stressed money is making you! I used to worry about money all the time, but I learnt to stop. There is actually a “skill” involved in not worrying - it can be learnt.
I found the book “How to Stop Worrying and Start Living” by Carnegie very very helpful. If you can’t afford a copy, I will buy one for you…
Hi Karen,
I know you’re basically a stranger to me, but I just wanted to say that I’m really encouraged by your example of self-sacrificing love for Ben
You could apply to a temp agency… with your office background you’d probably have work all lined up, and maybe only part time or something…
But yeah, it would be nice for you to have a holiday…
I’ve decided to tell the call centre I can’t start til after Christmas. I really want to go to NTE and see my family and stuff.
hi… you don’t know me - I’m just one of those people out there in the blogosphere…
But I thought I would say, I & my wife know the same frustrations, and it is encouraging (in a strange way) to hear that other people really worry about it too. When we have asked people about college & mts, people always seem to brush aside the finance questions with ‘you’ll survive’ etc.
Sadly, there sometimes seems to be a little bit of economic elitism among Christians… but I guess that isn’t unexpected in such a prosperous country.
Thanks, guys, for all the advice and comments!
Yeah, Drew, I often wonder how couples manage to make it through college too. I’ve often wondered whether we are doing something wrong and I wish sometimes there was a Christian who knew something about accounting and the standard of the cost of living and giving, etc. that I could talk to about these sorts of things.
But it is sort of funny how it works itself out; I always get depressed by my budget on paper but we have never gone into the red—not even in our first year of marriage when there was one week when we only had $30 in the bank (and my mother-in-law said, “When were you going to tell us?” The thought hadn’t even occurred to us!!)