Friday, January 14, 2011

Government assistance? Yeah right......

So much for the offer of assistance for small businesses after the floods.  I was unable to trade between xmas and new year, which is normally my biggest week of the whole year, but apparently that's just bad luck.  I don't qualify for any form of assistance and my bank doesn't give a shit either.

On the first day back after xmas, the water was on the way up and it appeared likely it would reach my shop.  I was advised to remove my stock from the shop, so I did that.  The water eventually peaked about 30m from the door, blocking access to one end of the street.  The other end was blocked by emergency services.  Then the power went off for a couple of days.  So, even though I had no stock, no access to the shop and no electricity, I still don't get any help.  According to the 'fact sheet' for the govt assistance, "The scheme is not intended to compensate for loss of business income."  So, I phoned the bank to ask if I could maybe skip a month on my payments on my business loan, so that I could at least pay some bills and buy some stock after the loss of that week's trade.  Nope.  No joy there either.  Not even prepared to discuss it.  I then decided to see about one of the 'low interest loans' being offered by the govt.  Nope.  Can't get one of those either.

So, thanks for nothing guys.  You've been a big fkn help!

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