centrelink and medicare appointment?

**boesman** · 01-12-2011, 01:09 PM

Hi folks, we are arriving on the 14th of Jan in Addies which is a saturday. Monday the 16th we would like to register with medicare and centrelink. Do we need to make appointments for these or just drop in and will they be open in January? We will go to the nearest offices to Moana. Any tips or hints would be greatful! Thanks so much.

Lindie

**zamunda** · 01-12-2011, 01:13 PM

Hi

We are not in Oz yet. But when one of my friends moved over (to Melbourne) they just walked into Centrelink. According to him everything took about 45 mins.

Hope this helps.

**boesman** · 01-12-2011, 01:21 PM

Thanks, I hope you are right

**Baggienurse** · 01-12-2011, 11:42 PM

Hi, you just walk into both, we did ours in port noarlunga. you can collect the forms from the medicare office then hand them in and you will get a temporary card. Centrelink is done via the phone or internet from home or in the office, we have waitied quite a while in there when dropping off documents, you dont make appointments for either, but its pretty straight forward.
Lisa

**jimmyskinner** · 02-12-2011, 01:11 AM

I cant believe people come to Australia and the first thing they want to know is how do we get Centrelink hand outs. This is one of the reasons the UK gets slagged off , giving taxpayers money to immigrants.

**ladyarkles** · 02-12-2011, 01:27 AM

For Medicare we downloaded the form here: http://www.medicareaustralia.gov.au/...orm_011005.pdf
Printed it up, filled it in as best we could and took it to the office on Currie St, Adelaide.

All people over the age of 15 on the form have to go to the office.

We were there about 45 mins (max) and they were very nice and helpful.

Parking is a bit tricky round there, but there are loads of buses and it is near the tram route.

~ Rachel

**helenrimmer** · 02-12-2011, 08:09 AM

Originally Posted by jimmyskinner

I cant believe people come to Australia and the first thing they want to know is how do we get Centrelink hand outs. This is one of the reasons the UK gets slagged off , giving taxpayers money to immigrants.

Personnally speaking, Its knowing in the early days that you may have some money coming in whilst looking for a job etc, I don't think the majority of us are heading off to Oz to lay on the beach, claim benefits and sit on our backsides doing nothing claiming every benefit going, its just a little bit of security knowing that you have a little bit of cash coming into the bank - there are a lot of us coming over without bucket loads of cash, who are giving up lots of things in the uK to start a new life for ourselves and our children, those people that are fortunate enough to come with no money worries are very lucky, but those of us that are comin on a strict budget know that the little bit of centrelink payments we may be able to claim will help us settle in those early days. Just my opinion but i know that those payments we will get will help us loads in those early days of massive start up costs.

**sueoc** · 02-12-2011, 10:35 AM

Centrelink is abused by shysters,i know people here in Adelaide who are of this ilk.This of course creates a Stigma about it all,much like the DHSS in the UK.But there are also many who genuinely need this service short term in order to get themselves on an even footing job wise.We need to look at all aspects before we judge methinks.

**Crushfamily** · 02-12-2011, 11:00 AM

Housos for all those with access to SBS!

**jaynem** · 02-12-2011, 11:11 AM

We didn't come with 'buckets loads of cash' and also 'gave up a lot of things to start a new life', but personally I find it really hard to accept that people expect centrelink benefits when they haven't contributed to the system!!!!. Immigrants in the UK are given a really hard time for relying on state benefits!!! Many of them are leaving countries facing terrible hardship etc