Floods and Helpful Advice

Our thoughts are with all those in Bundaberg and now throughout Queensland who have suffered flood damage to their homes, businesses, sporting and charity organisations. The clean up has commenced in Bundaberg and the goodwill shown by locals from all walks of life has been very heartening to see.

Obviously making an insurance claim is often the first step on the road to recovery. For example; Suncorp have advised that "there are some very simple things that can help speed up the personal and business claims process including:

• Do your best to dry out your home or business by keeping it as ventilated as possible. This will also help avoid the quick build up of mould.

• Get your wet contents out of the house/business - and make a list of damaged items. You can group lots of smaller/similar items together like 'food in pantry' or 'clothes in chests of drawers'.

• Where possible, take photos of your damaged belongings to show what you have lost.

• If you are throwing things out in clean-ups, make a note of brands and models for electrical items. Keep the manufacturer manuals if possible.

• Keep a piece of damaged carpet or photograph the carpet back where the make and brand is stamped so we can replace it with similar carpet and colour where possible."

A number of Banks are providing changes to repayment arrangements for both personal and business loans where customers are experiencing difficulties because of the flooding. If you require this sort of assistance, you should contact your Bank as soon as possible.

Financial assistance may also be available through government agencies (See here) These include:

The Australian Government Disaster Recovery Payment of $1,000 per eligible adult and $400 per child is available to eligible people adversely affected by the Queensland flooding. Centrelink also has a range of payments and services to support people in an emergency or crisis, whether or not you are already a Centrelink customer. For more information, visit the Centrelink website or call the Emergency Assistance Hotline on 180 2266.

Freight subsidies of up to $5000 per disaster event are available for eligible primary producers located within a disaster-declared area under joint Commonwealth/State Natural Disaster Relief and Recovery Arrangements (NDRRA). For more information, visit the Queensland Primary Industries and Fisheries website or telephone 132 523.

Low interest rate loans of up to $250,000 for eligible primary producers and small businesses located within a disaster-declared area can be obtained through QRAA (Queensland Rural Adjustment Authority). For more information, visit QRAA or freecall 1800 623 946.

Grants up to $25,000 are available for primary producers and small businesses to pay for costs arising out of damage caused by the November and December flood crisis. Assistance is provided through an initial claim of up to $5,000 to assist with immediate early recovery and subsequent claim of up to $20,000 to repair direct flood damage. The maximum amount available under the scheme is $25,000. For more information, visit QRAA or freecall 1800 623 946.

Sport and Recreation Services Disaster Recovery Program is offering one-off funding of up to $5,000 for replacement of operational items and up to $20,000 to assist the repair of sport and recreation infrastructure damaged by flooding. For more information, visit Sport and Recreation funding.

The Queensland Government has also issued a fact sheet with information for Primary Producers and Small Businesses.

Individuals may also qualify for Personal Hardship Assistance, Essential Household Contents Grant, Structural Assistance Grant from the above website.

At http://www.qld.gov.au/floods/support.html valuable information can be obtained on replacing important documents (e.g. birth certificates) that may have been lost as well as a number of other tips.

Locally businesses should ensure that they stay up to date with flood recovery efforts by going online to the council's website at http://bundaberg.qld.gov.au

The Bundaberg Regional Council has established recovery sub-group to develop and implement action plans aimed at restoring the region to its former state. In order to develop relevant strategies, it is important that Council have detailed information from businesses regarding their operational losses during the floods. Accordingly businesses can lodge information on the economic impact the floods have had here

This will allow a holistic view on the financial impact to business and will be useful in future negotiations for funding assistance in our region. If you want to discuss the impact to your business further, you can contact the Council's Economic Development manager, Ms Naomi Searle ph 4130 4003.

Flood affected businesses should ensure that they let their customer base know how the flooding has affected their business and how customers can continue to support them.

What can you do locally? Volunteer to assist others in need, donate, and above all buy local so that Bundaberg and the rest of Queensland is back on its feet as soon as possible.

The Australian Taxation Office are implementing a range of support strategies to help people affected by the continuing floods in Queensland, including the deferral of lodgement dates and the implementation of general interest charge (GIC) stoppers for businesses, tax payers and tax practitioners.

If you reside within the affected areas the ATO will automatically defer the lodgement and payment date for December monthly activity statements originally due 21 January 2011 to 21 February 2011, so you do not need to apply for a deferral. If any later deferrals have already been granted, these still apply.

If you face other lodgement or payment obligations in the coming weeks and you need additional time, please phone Ulton as soon as possible.

In the mean time, if you have been affected by the floods and receive any correspondence from the ATO that you are not ready to deal with, contact Ulton and we may be able to get the ATO to make special arrangements for you.

Flood, financial difficulty and access to super

There have been a number of articles appearing in newspapers over the last few days making the statement that flood victims can gain early access to their Super. This is not strictly correct. Click here to read further information...

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