We are both in our 80s, have a Home Care Package, but now need to select a home care service provider who requires a Centrelink Fee Advice Letter. As we both receive age pensions we are told on: www.myagedcare.gov.au/income-and-means-assessments/ that, ‘If your aged care provider requests a fee advice letter please call Services Australia on 1800 227 475 or the Department of Veterans’ Affairs on 1800 555 254’.
Since 4 July I have repeatedly called 1800 227 475, 132 300 and other suggested numbers without success. The Centrelink phone app has nothing relevant to this issue and simply sends us back to the same number which does not answer after 16 minute’s [of ringing]! This lack of response is totally unacceptable. Elderly people are not as cognitively alert as they used to be and most are not computer literate.
We contacted Justine Elliot’s office and also that of the Minister for Health and Ageing, Mark Butler, asking for their intervention, not just for us, but for our aged cohort. We are still waiting for the Fee Advice Letter, so now we are faced with the invidious choice of wasting time and the environment by travelling either to Brunswick Heads or Ballina to access Centrelink!
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
