Pension cancelled!

A-One forgot to report his (zero) income to Centrelink for a couple of reporting periods, and received a letter advising him that his pension had been cancelled. I was aghast.

 

 

 

Earlier I had coached him to set up an alert on his iPod to remind him to report. When he lost his job and his reporting became zero, he had been managing the reporting OK. Despite my suggestion that he should advise Centrelink he no longer had a job (so that he didn't have to report any more), he hadn't taken me up on assisting him with the phone call. 

 

The letter prompted him to action.  Before he made the call to Centrelink, we practised what he could say. He pulled out the making phone calls 'recipe' I had written out for him some time ago.  He handled the call very well, which resulted in the reactivation of his pension (and no longer needing to report his income.)  Phew!