WELFARE SOCIETY?

Brace yourself for a rant.

Question: Are we becoming a society of people that just rely on welfare?

Now, I’m not talking about genuine people in genuine need here.  There are many people out there that need assistance to get through daily life, short term unemployment, medical conditions, a broken down marriage, and so on.

 I’m talking about people that falsify their position in life to gain money from the government.

Let’s call it… fraud.

So, while the majority of us go to work and bust our nuts to get ahead in life, there are those people out there that feel it’s their God given right to take advantage of the government benefits system, that you and I pay for, and defraud it.

What prompted this rant, I hear you ask?

Well; let me explain.

Without going into too much detail, I’m involved in a situation where someone has ‘injured’ themselves whilst working for another company, and whilst on work cover benefits, was indirectly working for us.

What an absolute dog act.  I can’t believe it…  but how common is it?

Firstly, what kind of person actually thinks this up?  What kind of person actually steps back and says ‘you know what?  I’m going to fake an injury so I can get money out of someone’?  What kind of person actually initiates it?  How can a person sit down at their dinner table each night, knowing that the food their eating is paid for by money that has been deceptively obtained from someone else?  I wonder if it leaves a bitter aftertaste.

Secondly, and I think what makes me the angriest, is that a good, honest, small Australian business is being pushed to the limit by someone that’s defrauding them. 

It makes me fucking sick.

And you know what makes me even angrier?  When I talk to the work cover investigator, and he tells me that he hopes he can nail this one.  Hopes.  As they have limited resources, they’re only successful in about 10% of all cases.  10%! That’s just skimming the surface.

And the sad thing?  We’re paying for it.

Don’t kid yourselves peeps; we are paying for it.  We have to dig deeper into our pockets to pay for goods and services, because businesses have to pass on the increase costs of operating.  These increased costs can be attributed to many things, but work cover premiums are a killer, and the high costs of claims are pushing premiums through the roof.

As I said before, there are genuine people out there that are in need, and this rant is in no way, shape or form directed at them.  The system is set up to help those in need, but there are also those that need to abuse the system.

Some people are just dogs.

I nearly got into a punch on in the pub one night (yeah I know – me!) because of someone’s blatant bragging about their fraudulent behaviour.

You see, I was talking about work and what Charlie’s and my future plans were, and this person that I didn’t know particularly well, was sitting at the other end of the table just laughing at me.  I’m like ‘what’s so funny?’ 

‘What’s funny is that you go to work.  I don’t work.  I claim the single mother’s pension, and stay at home all day.’ She said. 

I’m like ‘But… aren’t you married with a couple of kids?’

‘Yep, but we pretend we’re separated and still living under the same roof.’ She smirked.  ‘My husband is on unemployment benefits, and I claim the pension for my kids.  We earn more that way than we did when we worked!’ she bragged.  ‘I get discounts on my utilities, on medication and medical treatment, all because I have a health care card.  I get discounted rent, because I’m on a pension.  It’s fantastic!’

She thought she was a genius, and I wanted to punch her in the face.  I looked at my friends around the table, and I think they were just as horrified as I was, though some of them clearly knew this was what she was doing. 

I just looked at her and said ‘Honey, you’re a dog.  What kind of person does that?  What kind of example are you to your children?’  That wiped the smile off her face.  ‘I’m working hard and pay my taxes to support this country, and you just steal them from under me.  You’re a dog.’

It’s fair to say that the rest of the night went pear shaped from there.

I know of a certain woman that moved interstate, leaving her husband and child behind, as she sought a finer, easier, carefree life.    Six months later she was busted by Centrelink for claiming the single mother’s pension for a child that didn’t live with her.  FAIL.

In 2004, I was diagnosed with cancer (sorry – pulling the cancer card peeps) and I was facing the possibility of not being able to work for about six months.  I’m sure you can appreciate the major financial impact this would’ve had on our little household.  So, I thought to myself ‘Self: you pay taxes; why not claim some medical assistance from the government?  If ever you’ve needed assistance, it’s now.’  

I’ve never claimed anything other than Medicare from the government before, so I lodged my little claim with Centrelink, and after submitting 20 reams of paperwork, you know how much I was entitled to?  $50 per week.  $50. Why?  Because I owned my home.

$50 wouldn’t even cover the cost of parking at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre!  When I questioned how I was to put food on the table with $50 a week, Centrelink’s advice was ‘sell your house.’ 

It’s okay Centrelink; I’d rather keep a roof over my head that I own, thank you very much.  I’ll just go back to work during treatment so I can help pay the bills and extra costs of having to drive into the city every day for fucking treatment. It’s all right.  We’ll just drag out the recovery process as long as possible by doing this, but that’s okay.  I’ll get over it.  Eventually.  Fat lot of help you are. 

Fraudulent people like pub-bitch and work cover boy make it hard for people like me, who needed assistance.   I presented my position honestly and openly, because I’m a strong believer in karma, and I got shafted for it. Punished for my honesty and hard work, I was.  Thanks for that.

However, I’m sure I’m not alone on that one.

So, maybe my original question should be modified: are we supporting sections of society that are constantly looking for the lazy, easy way out?

Hellza yeah.

Though… how do we stop it?  Do we trust our overwhelmed government departments to do their job… eventually… or do we step in?  Do we go to bed each night and hope that universal karma will sort these scumbags out?

I think I was raised well.  Why?  I’ll tell you why. 

I was raised with the understanding that to achieve in life, you must work for it.  Either educate yourself to construct a career, or secure a good, reliable job for yourself, and work hard.  You don’t have to be a millionaire; you just have to have a good life. Get your priorities right, and the financial rewards will provide you with everything you need.  Need, not want.  Big difference.

I believe most Australian’s can relate to this theory.  However, there is a portion of our society that believes they can get everything they want by doing nothing at all.

Hence, our pub-bitch and work cover boy types.  Those too lazy and disrespectful to do the right thing.  Those that don’t understand that they can really affect the outcomes for small businesses, of individuals, of everyone, because we all pay for them in the end.

And why the fuck should we?  They don’t care, as long as they’re getting what they want.  They don’t care about the impact on us!  Why should we stand idly by as this happens?  Why do we not step in where we can?

Fear.  What will happen to us if we interfere?  Will it impact upon my job, life, home, family, children? Will the authorities be able to stop them anyway? Is it all just pointless? Who knows?

How many of you out there know that people are defrauding the government right now, because they’re too lazy or too dishonest to do the right thing?  How many of you are too scared to do something about it?

It’s a certain breed of people that are defrauding us.  It’s not just Centrelink or Work Safe; it’s us.  This breed of people are seeping into our mainstream; infecting our way of life like a disease, and taking the money out of our wallets; money we have worked hard to earn.

I just don’t know how people like this can sleep at night.  Really I don’t, and I will do my bit to stop them, if I can.  Will you?

And if we can’t make a difference, the let’s just hope that karma the angry elephant comes and sits on their fraudulent heads.

Fuckers.

End rant.

Peace out.