Christmas has come in July for a 101-year-old Melbourne woman who has received a big cheque and a rent-free promise from the government.
Ivy Laver couldn't believe her luck last week when the Department of Housing rang her to say she would longer be paying rent in her public housing home, radio station 3AW has reported. Furthermore, Ms Laver learned she would receive $8000 in back-pay after unnecessarily paying rent for the 19 months since her 100th birthday. Her daughter, Michele Worthington, was even less believing. "I thought she must have dreamed it, so I rang the department that day and they confirmed it," Ms Worthington told 3AW Breakfast. The dream became a reality yesterday when the postman delivered her $8000 cheque.
The Department of Housing has confirmed that once a public housing tenant turns 100, they are no longer required to pay rent.
So what does a 101-year-old do with a bonus $8000? "Mum's going to take her family to the Windsor Hotel for high tea," Ms Worthington said. "My brother Richard, who is now deceased, worked there as a bellboy in the late 1940s." Ms Laver was a social smoker until she was in her 60s, when she starting smoking regularly until her 70s. She gave up drinking in her 80s.
Read the story as it appeared on-line at the Age.
"There is nothing like staying at home for real comfort."