Bethel Chit-Chat

Welcome to our new Chit-Chat newsletter.  We will be producing this newsletter each month and will be providing you with information about new ideas, government initiatives regarding disabilities, equipment and the all-important jokes and sayings.  If you have any ideas for our Chit-Chat please let us know it would be great to have participants involved.

    

 Fire Detectors

As the cooler weather approaches and we start looking at heating our homes it is important that we check our smoke detectors.  If you are unable to do this yourself, you can ring your local fire station (or you can ring our office and we will organise it for you) and they will come and check your detector and change its battery if needed (for nothing) as part of their community outreach scheme. 

    

Travel 

If you are lucky enough to be travelling overseas and you are on a Disability Pension, be aware that in any 12-month period you are only allowed to be absent from Australia for 28 days.  The 28 days can be made up of a single trip or multiple trips.  See example below.

Cathy gets DSP and has never travelled overseas. On 3 March 2023 she goes on a holiday to Fiji for 10 days. Cathy is paid DSP for the 10 days of her holiday. On 21 August 2023 she goes on a 4-week holiday to the Philippines. She is paid for the first 18 days of her travel and then her DSP stops as she has no days of payment overseas left. If Cathy has another overseas holiday before 3 March 2024, she will not get paid DSP as she does not have any days of payment available. On 3 March 2024 she will have 10 days payment overseas available. On 21 August 2024 she will have another 18 days payment overseas available.

Note: There are exceptions to this, and you can find them on the Services Australia website or ring our office for more information.

Joke Corner

A man walks into a bar and says, "Give me a beer before the problems start!" He drinks the beer and then orders another saying, "Give me a beer before the problems start!"

The bartender looks confused. This goes on for a while, and after the fifth beer the bartender is totally confused and asks the man, "When are you going to pay for these beers?"

The man answers, "Now the problems start!"

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A man goes into a pet shop to buy a parrot. The shop owner points to three identical-looking parrots on a perch and says, "The parrot on the left costs $500 dollars."

"Why does the parrot cost so much?" asks the man. The owner says "Well the parrot knows how to use a computer."

The man then asks about the next parrot and learns that it costs $1,000 dollars because it can do everything the first parrot can do plus it knows how to use the UNIX operating system.

Naturally, the increasingly startled man asks about the third parrot, only to be told that it costs $2,000 dollars. Needless to say, this begs the question, "What can it do?"

To which the owner replies, "To be honest, I have never seen it do anything, but the other two call him boss!"

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We hope you have enjoyed our first Chit-Chat.  Please remember if there is anything we can help you with please contact our office.  Stay safe and have a wonderful Easter with lots of easter eggs.  Remember -

Nothing is impossible. The word itself says I’m possible.