Tam, you need to be very very careful with centrelink and payouts, because as an example, someone recently got a much smaller payout and centerlink claimed back the entire years worth of payment because they fell over the threshold. You will find that centrelink actually claim back the entire year to 01 July if you do anything that changes the fact within that financial year. This person just got a very nasty bill of many thousands to backpay because of a much smaller payout.

hi all sorry it has been a while. My computer completey crashed and it took way too long to get it fixed...
Thanks for the comments about centrelink Anthony. I have rang them and asked what would happen if Alex did accept the payout and they said it would take his yearly income up to almost $100 000, and that would affect my payments- they will go from $425 per fortnight to $170 per fortnight. But on the first of July I would be able to tell them his estimated earnings for the 08-09 financial year and my payments would return to he previous amount plus a bit due to the CPI.
We did send the letter of acceptace through to MCRS, however the day they received it they also received the letter from our solicitor about the compensation claim. Alex's case manager then decided to send Alex to a new psyche to determine his invalidity rate and so forth. Our solicitor tells us that this is because of the compo claim and if this psyche says it is under ten per cent they don't have to pay us anything at all. Alex was furious! However, he did see his new psyche and apparently had to fill out a whole heap of forms and stuff and at present we are waiting for the medico- legal report. SO once again we are just waiting to see what happens!!! Alex is having a hard time with it all, he has been quite depressed as he thinks that this set back means he is not supporting his family- and no matter how much I tell him that isnt the case he deosn't believe me. I will keep you all informed though.
Tammy

Lovely to have you back Tammy. Hang in there, you are doing very well all things considering. Do take care.

Yes Tammy if he is depressed because he is a feeling a failure because of the money situation keep an eye on that. You need to reassure him that you will get through it ok.
Hubby crashed badly last year when the realization hit him that he was not the supporter of the family if you know what I mean?

Can well understand feeling like a failure. Big part of a man's ego is supporting the family. That one would be quite the blow even without PTSD. Hang in there.

Jim.

Thanks everyone for responding... I keep telling him that they will pay us eventually and it's not like we are completely broke or anything- we have more than enough money to survive. He was so looking forward to paying off all of our debts and things that this set back has gotten to him. He is coming around though. I tell him that the boys and I still love him so everything will be fine. He has another psyche appt (with his usual psyche) on Thursday and apparently they will actually start the EMDR thing. THey didn't start it last fortnight as Alex had his other appt that morning and the psyche didn't want to push him. I think he is actually looking forward to seeing his psyche this week as he has a fair bit to discuss with him. Now that our computer is fixed, he is spending a lot of time playing games and so forth which is a blessing because otherwise he is in my hair all the time, and it has stopped him thinking about the pay out as often. He has met up with a few of his old school friends recently so he is spending time going fishing with the boys and so on, and even though he never catches anything, he finds it relaxing- so now he has some one to go with, he is a lot better emotionally. Alll in all though we are going very well. Tahnks again for all of your support...
Tammy

Excellent to hear Tam.... just so long as you are also looking after yourself. I understand the stress Alex feels, though I believe you have done everything right and you are absolutely correct in that simply reassuring him that this is out of his hands and patience is now a virtue. Patience sucks at the best of times.... PTSD just makes it that bit worse. Damn waiting games..... Really good though that you are both working through all this Tam....

Alex has been extremely stressed today! He rang MCRS to ask if they had received his psyche report yet. The lady told him that it was on her desk this morning and that she would read through it today and callus tomorrow to let us know what's happening.
I thought Alex would be happy with this news, but it just stressed him to an almost unbelievable level! He is now worried about what the report says and whether he will be entitled to anything at all, which I guess I understand to some degree!
Anyway, hopefully tomorrow, we will have some news about his payout/s. I just hope everything goes smoothly...
Tammy

Good luck with it all Tammy let us know how he gets on!

Good luck today Tammy