Gold Coasters apprehensive for hardship payments after ex-TC Alfred

Residents are lamenting slow processing times for hardship grants they need to restock their fridges after ex-tropical Cyclone Alfred, as the government reveals just how many applications they have to sift through.

After the power went out for more than a week in some places, Gold Coast residents were forced to dispose of thousands of dollars of groceries. Picture: Tyran Holmes.

Close to one in six Gold Coasters have made an application for financial assistance after ex-tropical cyclone Alfred’s devastation, but those still waiting on their handout are growing weary of waiting.

The state government received almost 138,000 applications for personal hardship assistance grants from the Gold Coast local government area in the aftermath of the weather event – and said 96,000 of those applicants have been approved – but Gold Coast social media pages are rife with complainants saying applications were rejected or lamenting long wait times when they just need to be able to put food on the table.

Gold Coast resident Kiri Finlay said her application for assistance was still being processed more than a week after it was first lodged.

Freezers across the Gold Coast were stripped bare as residents tossed thousands of dollars of groceries. Picture: Tyran Holmes.

“We buy in bulk from Costco to save money and we did our fortnightly shop the day before the power went out,” she said.

Ms Finlay estimated her family was forced to toss more than $1000 worth of food and medication as a result of the seven-day power outage.

“I applied for all the available grants our family was eligible for, with the help of our local councillor,” she said.

But, more than a week later, she was still waiting.

“We can’t afford this,” she said.

Ms Finlay said she lives with a disability and her husband has cancer, so the emotional and financial blow has hit them and their two children hard.

Minister for families, seniors and disability services Amanda Camm said the government has not stopped thinking about those affected by the cyclone.

As at March 19, 96,000 residents had been handed a share of nearly $18 million in grant payments, a spokeswoman for the department of families said.

“The Crisafulli Government was clear when we said there would be no daylight between response and recovery for the weather event and these statistics show just that,” Ms Camm said.

“Staff have been working extremely hard to process grants, open and run Community Recovery Hubs and man our hotline to answer questions from people affected by the cyclone.

“We will continue to work through the grant requests and help those in need where we can and I’d ask the community to check-in on their neighbours and their friends and family to make sure they are coping OK following the weather system.”

Bins were filled with unused groceries as hundreds of thousands of Gold Coasters lost the ability to refrigerate. Picture: Tyran Holmes.

A Southport resident said they felt they had been kept in the dark about the status of their grant application, which was especially annoying after sitting in the dark for nearly a week during the cyclone.

“We applied a week ago for the hardship grant and have heard nothing since,” they said.

“You don’t even get a confirmation email when you apply and the government has given no indication of when, or if you’ll be successful.

“We lost all of our food during the lengthy power outage and the cost of replacing that is huge and it is frustrating to not know what is happening.”

Labrador small business owner, Tyran Holmes, said he had received his $180 payment from the state government within a week. but that it wouldn’t go far in recuperating the losses incurred during the cyclone.

He said the cyclone meant he couldn’t work for a week, and his mother broke her arm when she fell into a water meter pit on their property.

Mr Holmes’ mother broke her arm in the chaos of the cyclone. Picture: Tyran Holmes.

He also said despite manually aerating the water in his aquarium with a kitchen whisk, some of his fish paid for the outage with their lives.

“Some people might say they were just fish, but we lost our pets as well.”

Mr Holmes said his pet fish were also casualties of the power outage. Picture: Tyran Holmes.

Mr Holmes said he has not yet heard back whether he or his mother will receive a hardship grant for his loss of work or her flood-related injury.

“At the end of the day we’re still down more than we’re up.”

Mr Holmes showed the Gold Coast Bulletin a screenshot of his unsuccessful application for the Australian Government disaster recovery payment.

“It just feels so degrading and unworthy feeling,” Mr Holmes said.

“We kinda just wanna move forward.”