Tammy... I actually agree with you here and Alex needs to take his head out of his arse and wakeup to himself. PTSD is not an excuse, it is an illness, but not an excuse. He may not be able to work for someone, agree with him on that, however; he must also try. If not, then atleast get into something like he is providing it is not going to be a money pit, and does make him money.

You have to weigh up the long term benefits of taking a lump sum payment. As we did discuss this in Townsville on the course also. If he takes the lump sum, thats it... they will not give him another thing. The Army tried to do this with me also, being MCRS, and when I enquired about the impact this is what occurred. If I took the lump sum which all sounded great at the time, I would then get nothing from then on. It was basically a risk which I had to make a decision... take the fortnightly payments and hope I don't get hit by a truck, or take the lump sum and hope I do get hit by a truck because that money isn't going to last long. I took the fortnightly payments obviously as it far benefits myself if I live longer than about 10 years, then it favours me and not them.

Do the math, work it out and shove it under his nose. Longevity is the issue here, and he must accept this because he not only has himself to think about, but you and both the boys. Alex is not thinking straight by the sounds of it, and he needs to get himself of his pity pot of poor me and get on with actioning his life, which includes a license.

Sometimes Tam you just have to make things hard in order for him to find his path.... maybe you just need to say no and he has to start standing up and taking control of himself, and his life, instead of just laying down and expecting you to do more than you should be for him.