One of my children had immunisations overseas. We received letters for over a year and it affected our family assistance until it was resolved. But there is no doubt that they would not come knocking at our door about it. Many parents also choose to start their kids at school a year later as they feel they are not ready and there is no one asking why etc. I think it would be pretty easy to keep a child off the radar except for family payments. If you are not entitled to much assistance then you would not be concerned. There is no birth certificates or I'd required to start at a public school and many children change surnames due to relationships etc. and at birth the hospital just say take this piece of paper to register the child's birth. If you don't I wonder how they follow it up? Perhaps Medicare? I think the system relies on the fact that people want their assistance or bonus money. If you don't it's just cut off. They certainly don't come knocking to ask why.
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Yep, I don't think they come chasing after people.
Your point got me thinking, however, that some people apply for benefits (apologies to Australian friends - I don't know all the local terminologies for all the different types of financial assistance and social services ) via a special community organization.
Does such a facility exist in SA?
I know quite a few people who have applied for things via voluntary or charitable organizations who deal with benefits agencies on behalf of people who don't speak good English, have trouble filling in forms, or have complicated cases or other difficulties navigating the system. People present themselves at the local charitable office with their proof of income, etc., and the office processes everything for them.
In that type of situation, the charity would sometimes interview people at home, in a case where, for example, children might be entitled to extra help because of special needs at school. They would want to see the child in the home setting to make a full assessment of how the family set-up played into the equation.
If such organizations exist in SA, might they have records of problem families? Might they have to hand files on families who suddenly stopped calling upon their help? This would be a much smaller database than government services.
Perhaps I am stating the obvious but wouldn't this be a good port of call for police?