TheBanyanTree: Trying to iron out the waffle

[PJMoney]

Since March I've started to write this several times.  Every time I'd
get a few lines down and then think that maybe, in the next day or two,
the news I was waiting for would come and the situation would be
entirely changed.

So I waited.  But the news that came was always the wrong news; bad
news.  Then I'd be off on my next jag of trying to fix things, trying to
get people to see sense or at least to make sense.  And then I'd be
waiting again.

It doesn't matter anymore, not in a personal sense.  There's been some
money spent, some misery suffered and some tense moments to endure.  But
in personal terms I couldn't be happier with the result.  

My dearly beloved eldest son has given up his plan to get teaching
qualifications.  He got himself a part time job caring for disabled
people living in group homes and was so good at it that within a month
he was offered a full time position.  That was what he really wanted; a
job he enjoys, that he is good at and that pays a decent wage.  The
recognition and appreciation only makes everything more delectable. 

Now, three weeks after being made full-time, he's been promoted and put
in charge of a house.  He's bought himself a little scooter (top speed
60kph) so he doesn't have to rely on my old bike to get around.  He's
saving up for a bond so that he can get himself his own flat to live in.
And I have had six months to get to know him all over again.  Once again
we are family.

It doesn't matter to him now that six months ago his dreams got all torn
up by people who seem to lack reading and comprehension skills.  In fact
he now regards what happened as a blessing - one of those times when God
takes away what you want for the sake of arranging things so that He can
give you something better.  But it seriously matters to me that so many
people on the public payroll are so incompetent.

So I've kept plugging away; writing emails, chasing people up, looking
for someone new who might be expected to know the answer to my question,
or where to find it.  We've been through the Centrelink review process,
taken it to the Commonwealth Ombudsman in the NT and to the staff of two
Federal Ministers of the Crown and the best I've got back is what
someone once called "civil service waffle".  The rest is just plain
wrong.  Now I'm down to my last hope - the Commonwealth Ombudsman in
Canberra.  He's a law professor, experienced in administrative law.  If
anyone should be able to figure out the meaning of the term
"postgraduate bachelor degree course" in Section 569H. (9) of the Social
Security Act, 1991, it would be him.

Today I got the receipt proving that someone from his office collected
my letter on September 27th.  I wonder how long it will take for an
answer to come. 

Janice