The State government has offered a cost-of-living grant to all households.
An electricity credit. To claim the credit, one has to register on the Government Financial Services site.
The lady upstairs was having difficulty with this task, so I offered to help.
This is where I saw what the male half of this couple is up against.
Without being derogatory, the lady is totally disorganised, will not listen to advice and will forge ahead even if that is not the correct way.
The main problems were, registering with valid email addresses and phone numbers.
She had previously attempted to register and had put in incorrect details. Once that happens on government sites it is nigh on impossible to correct, or put it this way, it takes a very long time, going the long way around to come to a successful outcome.
Once I had navigated inputting the correct information, thus a successful registration, the next step was to provide identity documents.
Proof of residency, current lease agreement, copy of bank statement and receipt for electricity paid on the 30th September 2025.
Before I agreed to help her, I asked her if she had the electricity receipt required. She assured me she had.
So, she goes into her phone trying to find it.
For over 10 minutes she is looking, I am watching her scroll, scroll, scroll.
Finally, I ask her if I can have a look. She hands me her phone and I start scrolling. Noticing there are currently 383 emails on her phone. Scrolling through, I notice many of them start out; Rent Arrears.
Seems as though the rent is never paid on time. I did ask her if she was in charge of “running the household” without referencing the Arrears notices.
“Yes, I do, Joe is hopeless at that sort of stuff”. Joe is sitting across the way watching Jimmy Kimmel castigate President Trump.
Looking for the electricity receipt I ask her if she actually keeps the receipts, “No, I usually delete them”.
This is after telling me she had the receipt.
So I say, “You will need to ring the Rental Agent and ask her to send it to you”
“Oh, she does not like me, we do not get on”
I suppose that is because the bills are not paid on time and the estate agent constantly has to chase up monies owed.
383 emails. Why would someone keep that many?
I look over at Joe, he shakes his head, I go on my way.