Has or is anyone receiving parent payments for separated by living under the same roof. I am considering splitting with my husband as it is not working and I am miserable. This will be the second time we've split, however this time we've bought a house. (It's in his name). Is it difficult to get the payments? He works out of town half of the time so it would be easier to live together and one of us move into the spare room until we have things sorted and mainly I can get on my feet and ready to face the world. Also the market is bad and nothing is selling and we'd lose a lot of money. I'm not ready to tell the world about splitting but I can't do it any more. We have 2 kids together.
7 Replies
If you're not ready to tell the world, you're still presenting as a couple so you can't claim to be single to Centrelink. They have guidelines of what they can consider in a relationship. if you feel Centrelink should pay you, contact them, tell the truth and see what you're entitled to. Hopefully you'll have to prove you're actually separated and go for child support, divorce etc otherwise it seems too easy for couples to Rort the system and live really comfortably off Centrelink. Not accusing you of doing this but it does make me mad when real single parents really struggle to get by.
Definitely and definitely not rorting the system. I just don't want to be a freeloader and have him pay for everything and I live off him (currently this is the case, I have a casual job but I'm lucky to get, once in a month :(). I would tell people as they needed to know, but being a hard situation and I'm already fragile I'm not wanting to go and tell everyone at once and receive the backlash :( I'll do child support and everything. I just don't know how to bring it up with him yet and how to go about it and am scared of being kicked out tbh
Talk to centrelink, as long as you tell the truth and can stand behind what you've said and signed, if you're entitled then take it.
Sounds like a tricky situation, hope it's cleared up soon for you so you can get on with living happily. :)
centerlink have social workers available and can refer to support services
No pack of paperwork but if you are honest with them straight up its not a problem.
They have a standard set of expectations but at the same time they arent going to haul me over the coals if they see me giving him a hug in public. It was made clear in the forms that he has panic attacks and demands/needs a hug when he does.
An ex friend of mine started claiming payments as they couldn't make ends meet ( they were still together and happy just trying to get extra money) ... They Got away with it for a while until centrelink started investigating and realized no one knew they were apart, all social media accts had them as together. Family and friends thought they were a couple.
She tried to convince them she just wasn't ready to tell people and that the posts on social media and behaviour with family / friends were them Keeping up the act of being together and it was really just them trying to be good parents to their kids and co parent successfully.
It became fairly obvious to centrelink that this wasn't the case and they ended up with a large debt.
I'm not at all inplying you are doing this but I am sharing her story so you know that they do follow up and look at friends / family and social media.
I don't think you can seperate but still live in the same place and not tell anyone but receive benefits.
A lot of Couples do seperate and share a roof short term for different reasons but the keeping it quiet and not telling people you've split does make it look a bit funny and may flag you for more scrutiny.
Good on you guys for trying to make this work, that's great especially for the kids if you are amicable but if you've broken up then keeping it a secret may come back to bite you.
Telling your friends and family may end up being a bonus as they can support you through this hard time and help you.
Iv found people assume.
when we separated it was a huge blow up and he had a massive break down and essentially ran away....after the house he was staying in sold (it was part of a deceased estate and he was helping them sort everything out) there wasn't anywhere else to stay and realistically his health issues had been a problem for the period he was living alone. he needed supported accomodation but there isn't any....here he has the supported accomodation aspects he needs. but we are separated. centerlink know who does what for who, we are both disabled in different ways, realistically we could claim carers for each other even while separated but we haven't, centerlink don't have an issue with it.
some people have assumed we are back together simply because he moved back home. he doesn't socialise, majority of my friends actually don't see him very often because we meet up at the church and other places. but they know he is here because I send him recipes because he does most of the cooking. his workers know better however he spends his time barricaded in his room. although the last week has been good. he dragged me on a mammoth shopping trip and he brought a tonne of hardware plants and other stuff and has started playing around in the garden.
there was a situation about 4 months back when a notorious local ice addict tried to attack him on the train and followed him off at the station. he used to wander the town and take public transport everywhere, but he hasn't since. he wont go out on his own anymore. either drags me or one of his workers with him.
while the change in him this week makes it a little more pleasant around here its no reconciliation, everyone except him knows it is more likely hypomania.