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HELPFUL INFORMATION
There is a lot of help out there however finding it can often prove difficult! Here are some things that I found helped me and hopefully they will help you too. Disability Parking Permit You know how difficult it is getting babies and toddlers in and out of cars to pop into the shops to pick up a few things. Once you are undergoing treatment and your energy levels have dropped even further this task seems almost impossible. One thing that can help a little is to get a temporary disabled parking permit. Below is the link to the Qld Transport website and the form you and your doctor need to complete to get the permit. Qld Transport website information on disabled parking permit Link to form to complete for disabled parking permit
In Home Care When you get sick you may require extra childcare for your children. One option for this is a service called In Home Care. Basically it is a nanny coming into your home to look after your children. The difference between just hiring a nanny and using In Home Care, is that In Home Care is considered approved care (same as a childcare centre) and therefore you are eligible for the 30% (50% from 1 July) child care rebate and child care benefit that you would be if your child was in care in a childcare centre even though you have a nanny at home. There are specific organizations that offer this and you must organize the care through one of them to be eligible. Details about the scheme can be found at the FACSIA website. The organizations in Brisbane that offer In Home Care are · Charlton Brown Nannies— 07 3221 3855 · Wesley Mission Yeronga—07 3392 9799 · Lady Gowrie Caboolture Family Day Care—07 5495 2766 · Lady Gowrie Brisbane —07 3871 0321 · Lady Gowrie Noosa— 07 5474 5300 For In Home care you can either use one of the carers the In Home care service has registered with them or if you have someone specific you would like to use, then that person can register with the In Home care service and you can use them. For them to register they will pay a nominal fee ($30 to $100 depending on the service) to the In Home care service. They will also need to obtain professional liability insurance for around $10 per week either from Nannysure or Family Daycare Assocn. The In Home care service will usually charge you a nominal hourly fee ($0.30 per hour per child) on top of the carer’s fee. The carer’s fee is set by the carer but you could expect to pay somewhere between $13 and $20 per hour before the child care benefit is applied (and then the net cost to you is eligible for the child care rebate). If you need to find a carer to use for the In Home care service, you can use Find A Babysitter—Mummys Wish can arrange free membership for you to do this.
Childcare Fee Relief If your cancer diagnosis has put a severe financial strain on you (inability to work, medical costs, etc) you may be eligible to get special fee relief from your childcare centre. Basically your childcare centre (or other approved care facility) can grant 13 weeks of full fee relief in hardship circumstances. Another 13 weeks of fee relief may then be granted if the hardship continues. To get this fee relief the director of your centre must apply to the Family Assistance Office.
Wigs If you have private health insurance then you are probably able to claim the cost of purchasing at least one wig. Your hematologist or oncologist should be able to provide you with a letter that you can send to your health fund with your receipt for your wig to make a claim.
PBS Scheme The PBS scheme gives you access to discounted PBS scripts once you have spent a specified limit on scripts. As you are likely to be purchasing a lot of scripts it is worth registering for it—http://www.medicareaustralia.gov.au/public/services/msn/pbs.shtml#what_to_do
Medicare Safety Net The medicare safety net gives you access to higher medicare rebates once your expenditure has reached certain limits. You can register online for this—http://www.medicareaustralia.gov.au/public/services/msn/index.shtml
Medicare and Health Insurance Forms You are likely to be making a lot of claims to both medicare and your health insurance (if you are privately insured). Rather than completing the forms over and over again, fill in the details that do not change and photocopy the forms to use each time
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