Metastatic Mess: Self employed, no super, life or income protection, expired health insurance

Lisa...

Firstly, I hope everyone is feeling the best they can, and keeping positive... or doing whatever works for you if you're sick of people always saying "be positive" 

I feel really silly (and irresponsible) finding myself in this situation of being self-employed, with no super, life/income protection, and to top it off...expired health insurance.

My Diagnosis:

Age 40 - Breast cancer E+ Her 2-, 3 small children, chemo, radiotherapy, mastectomy, reconstruction.

Age
51 - Metastatic breast cancer (bones), radiotherapy, letrozole
(estrogen blocker), kisqali (tablets that target cancer cells), Xgeva
injection every 4 weeks, slow release pain killers.

We live on the Central Queensland coast and operate a small tourism business.  We moved here from Brisbane after my first diagnosis. I have spoken with our Bank and they will only delay mortgage payments for a few months which is of little help. The cost of treatments, medications loans and general "living" is unmanageable and I'm now maxing out credit cards. We don't eat out, travel, buy new things etc. There is no breast care nurse here. Does anyone have any advice regarding: claiming centrelink disability as a self-employed person? claiming old super from when I was an employee? robbing banks? sorry... disregard that last comment.

Thanks in advance,

Silly Sausage.

Deebs

Contact cancer council 131120 they provide legal and financial advice and may be able to connect you with a financial counsellor who can provide free, confidentiality advice...good luck 

iserbrown

https://www.bcna.org.au/health-wellbeing/financial-and-practical-support/

Lisa the link above maybe a starting point for you and also takes you into BCNA website where you can find services groups et cetera in your area

There's also a group on here that is private that you may benefit from

https://onlinenetwork.bcna.org.au/group/2-living-with-metastatic-breast-cancer

Take care

Sister

You're not silly at all - pretty much doing what people our age are doing all over the place.  We don't expect a diagnosis like this and no-one understands the cost of cancer until they're in it.  Everyone just assumes that it's taken care of.  I do hope that you can access some financial assistance.  If you haven't spoken to your medical team about your financial situation, please do so as they will often come to the party where possible.  

Brenda5

Your oncologist should be able to put you in touch with palliative care who should be able to help you greatly in getting a disability pension sorted.

youngdogmum

I'm pretty sure you will qualify for disability pension unless you have a lot of liquid assets, or partner is still earning a decent living from the business. An old super policy may have life insurance in it, you could start by looking on mygov on the ATO section "find my super". Perhaps if there's an account out there still with insurance you could see a solicitor about getting them to grant the insurance

traveltext

There’s two breast care nurses in Bundy:

https://www.mcgrathfoundation.com.au/get-support/find-a-nurse/

Beryl C.

Are you a public patient? This will save you thousands and BCNA has links to explain this.

Lisa...

Many thanks to everyone for their help - some good ideas to investigate here. The biggest hurdle is that I just seem to be hitting brick walls because we are self-employed.

Lisa1407

Hi Lisa
Sorry to hear about your situation - it is hard enough when you have all of those safeguards in place!

First, ok to be a public patient. I have health insurance but because the best place to be treated in Melbourne is a public hospital, I get all of my tests, treatments as a public patient. The cost of medications can still mount up, however I am about to apply for a healthcare card which I should be able to get as I have low income (and even though I am not eligible for any centre link payment). 

Secondly, you should be able to access any super you contributed from previous jobs. So track it down and give the funds a call. They each have different rules, but there is a couple of ways to access the money.

May not be the entire answer but hope this will help a bit and if you need help with your super let me know.

Cheers
Lisa

Hankster

If you create an account on my Gov and attach a link to the ATO you will find a list of all your old super that has been linked to your tfn .  You can check if any of them have disability insurance attached. If not I suggest you roll them all into one,  which is really easy on my Gov.  Then you can claim your super under TPD. Total and permenant disability.  Hope this helps 

arpie

Hi @Lisa...  How are you going?  I hope things have become easier for you.

where abouts are you?  What town?  Members may know of specific services available to you.

Do you need to travel 50k or more to your treatment?  You can claim fuel compensation via Isolated Patients Travel and sometimes accommodation as well.  You just hav3 to print off some forms, get your GP and Onc fill in the bits with your dates of treatment .... 
https://www.health.qld.gov.au/cq/patients-and-visitors/support-services/travel-assistance

All the best xx

Palmbeachprincess

Hi Lisa
i feel you, I also have no super. 
I just had to sell our house to release funds to pay for my monthly abemaciclib $5000 and Fulvestrant inj $1900!
i have 3 young children and no longer work.
i receive $703 per fortnight in disability payout. Took bloody weeks spent at Centrelink to get it approved and hundreds of hideous questions. 

sending love 💓 

Nadi

I've worked with Financial Counsellors Australia who do a fantastic job providing specific and tailored help to people who are facing financial difficulties due to illness or for other reasons. They offer a free and confidential service and can be contacted by visiting https://www.financialcounsellingaustralia.org.au/contact/ . They really are great.