It seems to give, (if I had read it correctly), both sides of the coin, as they mention some of the pros and cons of van life
I have noticed on my limited travels, plenty of middle aged people in caravans, in the free camps
I had always assumed that they were on holidays, perhaps some of them were actually full time travellers
I have only seen about two dozen or so, full time on the road people with school age children
One of the "assumed" pitfalls and one I've not seen mentioned yet on these boards, is how do you find space from your partner. We've been fine on our travels thus far, however I would imagine that eventually there will be times when you really do need your own space.
In a lot of places, (Tassie being one) so many are squeezed out of rental market (workers, not just dole recipients) people are looking for new ways to survive. Have a friend who earns $700+ a week take home, living in Hobart, looking at moving into van because rent is too high for her to have a 'good life'. Not an expensive one, just not having to scramble to pay bills, keep her car on the road etc.
If you can pay $200-$300 week and get power and water with that, why the Hell not?
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The Mobile Madhouse: me (Rosie), him (Troy), a kelpie, a kelpie-dingo, a husky & a rainbow lorikeet.
In my opinion there is a big difference between choosing that way of life and being forced into living in a van due to financial difficulty. The article suggests that the number of those living in vans is growing but if that figure is being inflated by younger people not being able to find permanent work or even a place with affordable rent then I dont see it as being too positive. If its only driven by the people who love that way of life then great they should keep on doing it for as long as possible.
If your on a disability pension and have good reason . Good on you . As your possibly aware . Theres plenty who are ! Some saying mental while being on Ice for years . Playing the system !! Ive tried to help 3 or 4 I know . With jobs and accomodation. Strange they didnt show up . Yet tell everyone who would listen . Theres no work . Theres no housing .
On DSP you can be a nomad you know. In fact it would assist ones mental health.
If you have been through the dsp application and subsequent processes and you qualified (no mean feat nowadays) then you have no reason to be ashamed.
I find your comment quite sad and hurtful.
I am on DSP. I served in the defense, worked in jails and security, 72 hours a week 12 hours shifts. Yeh, buddy I dont "hide". I'm unwell. My brother and uncle suicided. Ive attempted as has my remaining sibling.
Nuf said
Tony
-- Edited by Eaglemax on Wednesday 7th of November 2018 09:52:46 PM
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Be nice... if I wanted my school teacher here I would have invited him...
Be proud guys . Ive recently lost my causin from suicide. His wife had terminal cancer . We where like brothers . So double tragedy . XXX ., Theres so many health , reasons out there.
Sorry for the losses to your family, but depression and trying to hurt yourself, is not a reason for a permanent disability. This is why the system has been overrun and are now stopping new applicants. Now if you can in anyway work for one hour a day, "in theory," you cannot access the pension & are kept on a low rate of newstart. Yes i have tried to access disability myself, but have been refused.
He wasnt living in Aust and not on any disability. He was looking after his wife ..What im
saying is no one knows whats going through peoples minds . I guess terminal cancer and bed bound is a disability? He qualified for pension anyway . What happens is everyone has their issues. Takes things out on others . No one knows unless you say so though.
-- Edited by Aus-Kiwi on Thursday 8th of November 2018 11:29:36 PM
We are on the road full time and i do not see many people like this. Mainly, i see grey nomads enjoying life and homeless People. a few weeks back met a beautiful family, 2 little kids, living in a car with a rooftop tent n lean to tarP. This is heart breaking. We are a wealthy country and it disgusts me that rents are so high. People on new start, young or aged, have not a hope of paying those exorbetent rents. Anyway, just saying, it upsets me to see this.
We are on the road full time and i do not see many people like this. Mainly, i see grey nomads enjoying life and homeless People. a few weeks back met a beautiful family, 2 little kids, living in a car with a rooftop tent n lean to tarP. This is heart breaking. We are a wealthy country and it disgusts me that rents are so high. People on new start, young or aged, have not a hope of paying those exorbetent rents. Anyway, just saying, it upsets me to see this.
If it all goes sideways for us (fingers crossed not) we'll HAVE to live in the van. Rental prices would keep us out of the market in the places we'd need to be (medical issues)...
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The Mobile Madhouse: me (Rosie), him (Troy), a kelpie, a kelpie-dingo, a husky & a rainbow lorikeet.
Sorry for the losses to your family, but depression and trying to hurt yourself, is not a reason for a permanent disability. This is why the system has been overrun and are now stopping new applicants. Now if you can in anyway work for one hour a day, "in theory," you cannot access the pension & are kept on a low rate of newstart. Yes i have tried to access disability myself, but have been refused.
And you psychiatric qualifications are?
I think you are way out of line, judgemental and one of the main reasons people with mental health struggles have the extra burden of stigma.
Im familiar with this lack of compassion and prejudgement. Sadly its very common.
Nuf said.
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Be nice... if I wanted my school teacher here I would have invited him...
Sorry for the losses to your family, but depression and trying to hurt yourself, is not a reason for a permanent disability. This is why the system has been overrun and are now stopping new applicants. Now if you can in anyway work for one hour a day, "in theory," you cannot access the pension & are kept on a low rate of newstart. Yes i have tried to access disability myself, but have been refused.
And you psychiatric qualifications are?
I think you are way out of line, judgemental and one of the main reasons people with mental health struggles have the extra burden of stigma.
Im familiar with this lack of compassion and prejudgement. Sadly its very common.
Nuf said.
I never said anything about mental illness, i know this is a very real illness, so stop feeling sorry for yourself. If you are able to drive a car or sit and fish for 1 hr a day, you will not get on a disability pension now. Keeping ill people on the lower rate of newstart, This is because the country cannot support the disability load it has on at the moment. Too many people think that if they qualified for a pension, it is for life. So yes a lot people are hiding behind an illness, as an excuse that they cant do 1 hr a day in any kind of work. Is your plan, to just wander around and not get better, just saying " i am mentally ill" and am not even capable of 1 hr a day work?
The fact is as our population increases we will see more and more people living in caravan park situations or stealth camping, most of us get through OK and are able to provide for ourselves and a family, there will always be those who live on the fringe.
Take a look at the situation in the US, they have a massive trailer park population, most of whom will never aspire to anything grander, they even have a term for them (trailer Trash)
It's a sad fact of life, most make it, some don't.
In the mid-20th century, poor whites who could not afford to buy suburban-style tract housing began to purchase mobile homes, which were not only cheaper, but which could be easily relocated if work in one location ran out. These sometimes by choice and sometimes through local zoning laws gathered in trailer camps, and the people who lived in them became known as "trailer trash". Despite many of them having jobs, albeit sometimes itinerant ones, the character flaws that had been perceived in poor white trash in the past were transferred to trailer trash, and trailer camps or parks were seen as being inhabited by retired persons, migrant workers, and, generally, the poor. By 1968, a survey found that only 13% of those who owned and lived in mobile homes had white collar jobs.[5]
Trailers got their start in the 1930s, and their use proliferated during the housing shortage of World War II, when the Federal government used as many as 30,000 of them to house defense workers, soldiers and sailors throughout the country, but especially around areas with a large military or defense presence, such as Mobile, Alabama and Pascagoula, Mississippi. In her book Journey Through Chaos, reporter Agnes Meyer of The Washington Post travelled throughout the country, reporting on the condition of the "neglected rural areas", and described the people who lived in the trailers, tents and shacks in such areas as malnourished, unable to read or write, and generally ragged. The workers who came to Mobile and Pascagoula to work in the shipyards there were from the backwoods of the South, "subnormal swamp and mountain folk" whom the locals described as "vermin"; elsewhere, they were called "squatters". They were accused of having loose morals, high illegitimacy rates, and of allowing prostitution to thrive in their "Hillbilly Havens". The trailers themselves sometimes purchased second- or third-hand were often unsightly, unsanitary and dilapidated, causing communities to zone them away from the more desirable areas, which meant away from schools, stores, another necessary facilities, often literally on the other side of the railroad tracks.
US is a little different . One reason is they only have 2 weeks annual leave . They fly to destination. Most RVs are corporate or retirees . Its a lifestyle for the some dead beats also . Saying that . It doesnt mean if you are living like this doesnt mean we all are . I am a landlord also I see things from both sides . Theres a lot of younger couples on the system . Who say if they WORK they loose benefits! Cost of living rises. Now wander ! So the circle keeps growing . Trouble is its a PC world these days . If youve worked and injured etc ? All fine and well !
Sorry for the losses to your family, but depression and trying to hurt yourself, is not a reason for a permanent disability. This is why the system has been overrun and are now stopping new applicants. Now if you can in anyway work for one hour a day, "in theory," you cannot access the pension & are kept on a low rate of newstart. Yes i have tried to access disability myself, but have been refused.
And you psychiatric qualifications are?
I think you are way out of line, judgemental and one of the main reasons people with mental health struggles have the extra burden of stigma.
Im familiar with this lack of compassion and prejudgement. Sadly its very common.
Nuf said.
I never said anything about mental illness, i know this is a very real illness, so stop feeling sorry for yourself. If you are able to drive a car or sit and fish for 1 hr a day, you will not get on a disability pension now. Keeping ill people on the lower rate of newstart, This is because the country cannot support the disability load it has on at the moment. Too many people think that if they qualified for a pension, it is for life. So yes a lot people are hiding behind an illness, as an excuse that they cant do 1 hr a day in any kind of work. Is your plan, to just wander around and not get better, just saying " i am mentally ill" and am not even capable of 1 hr a day work?
It's down to the individual, The Lentil as Anything chain here in Melbourne "Employs" volunteers to help run their restaurants, sometimes they are well enough to work, sometimes not. When they are well they earn income, when not their position is kept for them.
My oldest Daughter is a head chef at one of them, and has been on a DSP for circa 3 years now. Sometimes she's well enough to work, sometimes not. That working enviornment has made her far far better and able to function more in main stream society.
https://www.lentilasanything.com/abbotsford/
Here's the current ruling re working on a DSP.....
DSP recipients aged under 35 years with some capacity to work will be required to attend regular participation interviews with Centrelink to develop participation plans, to help build their capacity and overcome barriers to work; and
All DSP recipients will be able to work up to 30 hours a week without their payment being suspended or cancelled, subject to the income test. Currently DSP recipients granted after 11 May 2005 can only work up to 15 hours a week before their payment is suspended or cancelled. These people find it difficult to find work that is limited to only 15 hours a week and many want to work more hours.
Thankfully the Government's have acknowledged the need for mental health services. Tailoring workplace conditions to enable some to work flexibly is a great initiative.
In my case, the dept Veterans Affairs card is used to pay costs for mental health appointments and medication. I'm grateful for that.
Every case is different. Fraud is common. I spent 18 years as an investigator for fraud. Fraud makes it hard for the genuine.
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Be nice... if I wanted my school teacher here I would have invited him...
Even the young family 
