toot. I am sorry if our light bantering is causing you concern, but quite honestly it is not directed at anyone at all & we are merely trying to keep our heads up by a little lightheartedness. All of us pensioners, whether we are a couple or single, who are living only on the pension are doing it tough, so we realise that you and other widows are also in a lousy place. Our government does not understand what it is like to walk in any of our shoes and we are trying to think of ways to get this across to them. If only we had a pensioner in Parliament then things, I think, could be different. I say could because there never any guarantees in life. So please do not take too much to heart that goes on in this forum. We do however welcome any ideas you might have that could change our position. I hope I speak on behalf of everyone, if not then that is how I see it. It is no joke trying to stretch money until you just can't, but what else can we do at this stage. I am still writing letters, or typing them on the computer as I cannot write for another 4 weeks. The damn surgeon put another plaster on my hand from knuckles to elbow yesterday & said see you in 4 weeks. I was really thinking he would not do that. I cannot drive or do much at all. Living on my own I get into some pickles. I do have a friend who helps, but is not always here when I need help. Oh well, just another problem to add to the list.

terrib i apologise to you if i have taken your comments the wrong way, some of the responses I have had when I have exposed my situation in the hope that people will understand the difference that those on the widow allowance experience have been quite nasty to say the least. Not knowing(and rightly so) where you live I can only suggest you try and find out if your local council does the same as mine here. If you become ill, disabled or have just come home from hospital and need assistance you contact the council , explain your situation and they send someone out to talk to you, assess your needs and then if you are considered suitable for what they can offer there is a discussion on whether you have to pay a small (and I do mean small) fee or no fee or maybe a slightly larger fee, this service is then provided for the time of your illness or disability. Some of the services we can access (we used this type of thing a few times when my husband had a knee replacement and at other times when he was waiting for surgery)are transport to and from doctors, physio appointments, basic house cleaning-vacumming and dusting but no lifting- also access can be arranged to silver chain services via your doctor and this can be coming and showering you (a friend of mine receives this), changing dressings etc.Even talking to your GP about what you have difficulty with can then help you get access to help for the duration of your problem.Do not feel ashamed about asking for this assistance as it often helps prevent further problems and is often an alternative to having to be in hospital.Hope you get better soon and have a pleasant weekend. Will be signing off now as I have to get ready for my bus which goes at a quarter to twelve and I have to leave home fifteen minutes before that to get to the bus stop and there is only the one (out of the two buses we have)that goes direct to the shops I need to today.

[b]toot[/b] Thank you for your reply. Yes I do know of the services and have been having home help for a number of years. They come for an hour a fortnight to clean the place, vacuum, wash floors. I also had someone these past 2 weeks to help me shower for a half hour in the morning. That has now finished. I had the surgeon put on a waterproof plaster so that I could shower myself as a month is a bit long. Where I find problems are often at odd times and could not put off until someone comes, they are the things where you find living on your own becomes a problem. I will get by & if a friend cannot take me shopping I will see if Home Help can give me extra help until the plaster comes off. It's just frustrating that's all. I wish the Surgeon had used his brain & not taken the plaster so far up the arm, but perhaps that is where it is supposed to be. I don't know. I am not a good patient especially when my freedom to drive etc has been taken away.

wonderful! thanks for the info..





[url=http://simulationassurancevie.com/][color=#FFFFFF][u]commission de surendettement[/u][/url][/color]

[color=#FFFFFF]- commission de surendettement, vous pouvez demander un dossier de surendettement.[/color]

Since my post in May of this year, as a person who put in a submission to the Harmer inquiry in regards to the situation that Australian women who are on the widow allowance have to suffer-using my situation as an example,I have received a copy of the report.

It is referred to as the future of the Australian Taxation system and inside it says the Pension Review Report and the author acknowledged as Professor Harmer.

If any one has any specific queries I can if they wish try and find if the subject they want to know about is mentioned in the report and then post it in here.

One thing is for sure , in spite of what people say to me I intend to keep fighting to get the widow allowance changed back to a pension and to that end I will keep utilising my situation as the type of thing some widows could find themselves in and in spite of what the politicians say , whether you are looking for work or not , the maximum amount of $248.20 a week is NOT enough to live on.

"If any one has any specific queries I can if they wish try and find if the subject they want to know about is mentioned in the report and then post it in here. "



Very good of you, Toot. Hope others in a similar situation appreciate your work.

Toot may I suggest a solution to your Widows mite you keep wanting please........



You are apparently in your 50's early 60? Try the "Personals" even here, there may be a lonely man working! who would marry you so you could once again be a kept woman by a husband???

Truly if you do not wish to work like everyone of us not pension age do, and many who are pension age do, this could work for you. Poor thing you - I have said maybe some psychiatric help to get you over the hump Widows can survive without a man to keep them, trully they can.

Just because you have a piece of paper to say I was once kept by a man because I have the I am married piece of paper and hence now a widow I should get the Age Pension and not have to wait until I am 65 like other women and men. (will be 67 in the not too distance future).



I heard on the grapevine many Government handouts will soon be given in "Food Stamps" which is a wonderful idea I believe.......New Start Allowance is wonderful for people to get a start and food stamps would suffice instead of too much cash. I personally would never need it but if it gets people off the computer and their butts and gets them into taking responsibility for themselves it is a good thing. Check out the group (I have forgotten what it was called) on Google re food stamps instead of cash. Might be good for you?

korry, pull your horns in . Since when did I say I wanted the age pension. What I have said always is the widow allowance should be changed back to the pension it used to be before 1997 when it was changed to an allowance(I was widowed in 2005).

As far as needing psychiatric help, their is nothing wrong with my mind, if there was I would not be sitting on one hospital consumer representative committee(unpaid position), on an advocacy for aged care board(unpaid position), on the management committee of a community group that runs a youth drop in centre(unpaid position), on a steering committee for helping prevent elder abuse(unpaid position), and other committees that I will not list, the moderator would not want something twenty pages long.

Also where do you get the idea that because a woman has become a widow that she was supported fully by her husband. While some are, I did work in an office and a lot of the times it was me who was supporting my husband through various surgeries , some caused by the heart condition he was born with and other operations like cataract removals, total knee replacements, and other myriad of conditions that I do not see I have to list here because of your total lack of understanding.

Yes the Newstart Allowance might be good for those starting out, however at nearly 62 and due to various personal reasons which I will not divulge just to quieten you down, I still have a mortgage and with no children to provide help, I have found that most employers do not even answer your job applications and when I have used a job provider in the past they were pretty useless except for getting you to sign the book when you fronted up so they could get their money from the government.

Also for your information to get the widows allowance a person must have been out of the paid workforce for 10 years(and what do you say to the women who have never been in the paid workforce because they may have been raising children or maybe saving the government thousands of dollars by looking after their partner and not be eligible for any benefit because you have to use up your savings and super before you get any assistance), be born before 1/7/1955, recently widowed, divorced or separated, not worked for more than 20 hours a week in the last 6 months and of course they also have to pass the assets test.

With ones like you posting it is no wonder people drop off the meeting place, walk a mile in another persons shoes before you criticise so strongly and start saying people need psychiatric help.

In closing I hope none of your friends or family end up like a lot of widows in Australia do because I shudder to think what your attitude to them would be.

By the way Korry i forgot in the first bit, the only reason that I even have this computer with the internet connection is because the chairman of one of the committees I am on did not want to have to ring me and send stuff out in the mail.

The upshot is that they are supplying this and when I finish on the committee which depending on whether i get relected this year or not will either be october this year or october in 2011, so once it goes you will have to find someone else to get sanctimonius at.