THE CRUEL, MONSTROUS JOKE OF ‘RENT ASSISTANCE’

Phil Roberts 1957 (Melbourne)



Just fifty bucks a week
That’s all we get to keep,
Rent costs us three-hundred bucks
But we get back
               just eighty bucks a week.

For those of us on Job Seek
It’s just fifty bucks a week
Our rent may reach three-fifty bucks
But we get back
                just eighty bucks to keep.

Just eighty bucks a week.
Is what we get from that
                        bloody creep,
While Rudd jetsets around
                             the World
We get just fifty bucks a week.

Just fifty bucks a week
The Old-Age are far too meak,
They’re not about to inherit
                            the World
On just fifty bucks a week.

For invalids life’s bleak
Their bills are far too steep,
Their rent’s a thousand bucks
                                    a month
But they get back fifty bucks
                                         a week.

THE END
© Copyright 2021 Philip Roberts
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

About this poem

I used to think doctors were gready bastards for charging so much above the medicare levy. That is until I became an invalid and had to try surviving upon a feeble pension. My rent assistence is less than a quarter of my rent, and since I'm on a lot of medication they give a PPS allowance. $2.90 per item. Unfortunately that is about 30 years out of date. The PPS charge is $6.60 per item these days. I sincerely apologise to the entire medical community for maligning you for so long. If the government is as out of date with your payments as with pension payments; no wonder you have to charge way above the Medare levy. 

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Written on February 13, 2009

Submitted by PHIL_ROBERTS on August 13, 2021

Modified on March 05, 2023

41 sec read
0

Quick analysis:

Scheme AbcDA aacDb AxbxEa AaxEa abcxca xxx
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 892
Words 138
Stanzas 6
Stanza Lengths 5, 5, 6, 5, 6, 3

Phil Roberts

I turn 65 on the 31st of January 2022. I love cats, rock music, and horror fiction and poetry more…

All Phil Roberts poems | Phil Roberts Books

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