MONEY ? financial assistance

[pen1]

Hi I was just wondering about finacial assistance as I am about to start recieving my employment income protection I am not entitled to health care card and am doing interferon (melanoma )treatment the medication is $1583 every 3 weeks plus pain medication etc .... after I pay rent food etc my income protectin will not cover these costs ? I had one of assitance from cancer council to pay phone power bill but that was 1 off payment ........ How do people afford to have treatmnets pay for medication and live ? I am looking into super as well but that seems to be another nightmare area to deal with . it seams to me that having cancer is not enough to deal with all these agaency gov etc make you jump thru that many hoops I have had to wait 3 mths for my income protection and am praying that they start to pay by end of month as I now have used up all sick leave annual leave payments and any savings I had plus my family have kept me afloat this far but I hate being an emotional and finacial burden to them ..... any advise would be great I am in WA

[smellingtherose]

HI there, yes its very hard I had 6 mths off work and the last thing you want to think about is the bills. I was surprised that my bank was very helpful when I explained my situation they helped! I have not had to pay anything on my visa card for the time I have been off work. I guess just ask for help and take it where you can. Concentrate on getting well and healthy. Hope that helps. Cheers.

[Julia]

Hello

I  hear you. I was recently diagnosed and was self employed and am not allowed to work. i couldn’t anyway. I have medical certificates and have to apply for “job seeker”. I ,tired explain I am not seeking a job but thats what I have to do? Madness.

i too am not eligible for anything by a hairs breadth. I can’t get transport funding as you have to be 100 klms from the specialist and I am 88 klms.

i can’t get a healthcare card as I am not in receipt of Centrelink payments, which I can’t get because my husband works and gets just over the amount allowed. 
i have to have supplements which we pay for, meds which we pay for, petrol back and forth (we are rural) blah blah.

applying for all this whilst having daily treatment is a nightmare. I don’t have advice sorry only empathy.