Fighting for a fair deal from Centrelink
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Dealing with Centrelink is a full-time job for someone applying for a Disability Support Pension (DSP), especially someone the department won’t recognise as disabled (despite a string of doctors and therapists who do), which means they push you to the (cheaper) New Start counter. From there you are sent for a series of appointments with outside assessors whose assessments (“totally stuffed, no hope of working”) are ignored in the hope that by requiring more and more assessments, one of these assessors, one day, will write to say that the unfortunate person is “possibly” capable of some unidentified and unspecified job. Meanwhile, all avenues to disallow a DSP are explored and every opportunity taken to say “Go back to the end of the line”. This includes non-attendance at any interview or not bringing completed paperwork to the interview. For someone with brain damage, serious health issues, poor eyesight and little mental stamina, this makes it easy for Centrelink staff to exploit as a means to denying a DSP. All the while, the individual continues to spend precious savings on taxis and public transport (without a positive assessment by ACAT — see below — he can’t obtain subsidised transportation) going to pointless interviews and assessments, just becoming increasingly disillusioned and frustrated — which are not good things if you are already suffering physical and mental disabilities! And then there is Federal Health’s ACAT process. Heap of crap looking for any excuse to disallow anyone younger than 65 (subject is 60). They say “Go to NSW Health; DADHC”. DADHC says “Too disabled and requiring too much full-time care for us, see ACAT”. Then you have an investigation done into the whole ACAT process, get to make comments on that report to the two health workers/administrators who prepared it, before it goes upstairs (June 2009) and then, despite a series of emails to the upstairs person, cannot even elicit an acknowledgement of your correspondence, let alone a reply! To fill in spare time while this is all not happening (I still waste four hours a night by sleeping) you write to Macklin, Della Bosca and Roxon … and Bill Shorten sends you a two-page press release (outlining all the things Rudd has promised — none of which apply to the case at hand) top and tailed with three patronising sentences. And he spells his minister’s name Roxton. My response to him was a gem! Meanwhile, because no one wants to take ownership of the individual, you bring him home (February 2009), when his private health insurer won’t pay any longer for rehabilitation on the grounds that he is not getting any better. At home he is living with his family (ages 92 to 13) and do your best to look after him until your own health suffers (July 2009) and you have to place him in a serviced apartment … where he is today, making a full-time job of trying to deal with Centrelink. And thus the world goes around! |
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7 Comments
Oh wow! Didn’t this bring back a lot of memories I’d rather not have. I fought CentreLink(Social Security then, or as I called it, the ‘dept for social insecurity’) for 13 yrs for a DSP. Even though I had highly qualified medical specialists who said I could never go back to work(for Repititive Strain Injury)as I couldn’t even hold a book for very long, my neck & spine were stuffed(painful) etc.It wasn’t until after I fractured my coccyx(something even the ordinary idiot at CentreLink could relate to)that I was accepted as eligible for a DSP. I could write a book about the number of times the money was cut off while on Job Search or Newstart; the stupid courses for typing and other impossible tasks; the endless embarrassments, frustrations and almost mind numbing stuff ups.
Almost 26 yrs later, I have to take slow release morphine twice daily just to care for myself and my home(vacuuming, washing ironing,cleaning my car??). I’m in constant chronic pain and have to use a head set while on the phone, as I can’t hold my arm in a fixed position for long - in short, my employer(NSW govt-1983) forced me to be a cripple!
Now that I’ve reached the acceptable age, I’m on the aged pension. Life has been relatively quiet for 13 yrs. You have my total sympathy. The only advice I can offer, is make sure you keep copies of EVERYTHING, whenever you fulfill your obligation to a meeting etc, make sure that some bit of paper? is initialled and date stamped! Try to see the same person, and if possible, go and see your Federal Member - armed with all necessary documents, medical reports/certificates etc.
This ‘journey’ has to be experienced to be believed - I only cracked up in front of them once in 13 yrs - (what happened when I got out of there, in the office or at home is a different story - throwing things is good therapy-just make sure you don’t damage anything you value - I find swearing most beneficial, vital even - sense of humour? they make it bloody difficult to retain even a hint of that!)
As I said in another post on a similar topic, entitlements for retired politicians continue unabated while the genuinely needy have to jump through hoops like circus animals and are made to feel grateful for anything received.
Does anyone ever listen?
I have an idea. What about an Ombudsperson? A quaint Nordic institution whereby the actions of bureaucrats can be efficiently reviewed. Fairness would abound across the land.
Australia could do with a few, but they would need teeth and appropriate resources, not just a name and address.
Firstly, dealing with Centrelink isn’t a full time job, disability or not.
The most you are asked to do, is to sit and wait in line an air conditioned room with a group of assorted young people and bogans for a couple of hours.
You also to lodge your form once every fortnight, which usually isn’t really such a big deal.
After a selected period you are asked to attend and interview and maybe job search training and fill in a dole dairy..then followed by mutual obligation.
There is a sense of regularity about centrelink and as long as you go with their ebb and tide..and declare all your outside payments..you will pull though ok.
If your average bogan with fairly low IQ is able to navigate the centrelink system with ease, (even with skill)
I can’t see why a person such as ‘anonymous disability carer’ can’t do it either.
If you don’t understand or can’t make it to an interview you can call them and explain why and usually they are quite forgiving.
Be thankful that Australia has a social security system at all.
I have often said that all politicians should be made to “work for the dole”: keep a diary in their own handwriting, detailing what they are doing to earn their money; regular and frequent compulsory attendances at places like p0lice stations, hospital casualties, railway ticket offices, school classrooms, Centerlink offices, and so forth, to witness the consequences of their decisions. Any breach of these conditions to be dealt with by whatever rules are in place at Centerlink at the time. Oh, and obviously, after they retire, they must fill in a form every two weeks to receive their parliamentary pension. Perhaps one might see some fairer rules evolve.
TIM NASH - I’m glad you had or are having a good experience, but I can assure you, that when applying for a DSP, life is not like that. It’s tough, frustrating, demeaning, embarrassing, tedious and takes up more energy that the person who’s applying. If you’re not in constant pain or have a mental illness etc, you have no idea what you’re talking about. When just doing up buttons or a zipper, or holding a cup when your hand/arm is weak and extremely painful, imagine doing all you described - how exhausted do you think you’d be at the end of the day - then you’re likely to have some dickhead somewhere during the day saying, ‘come on, it can’t be that bad’?. I’d given birth 3 times, and the pain and disability from this has been worse, believe me!
There’s no let up, it just goes on and on!The person who wrote this article was also trying to hold down a job. It’s an impossible situation. Just be grateful that your life’s a breeze - but don’t judge others before you’ve ‘walked a mile in their shoes’ .
A friend of mine has a myriad of medical problems, but her worst is that her body can go into spasm if she presses on a part of her spine. She was applying for a DSP, and had been given the run around for months, and she was almost out of her mind with frustration. In desperation, she pressed this ‘spot’ while on the floor in her local Centrelink office, and all harrassment ceased. Sadly, I didn’t have this ‘physical’ element as evidence, and I’d suggest that the person referred to in this article was in the same boat.
Actually LIZ, my mother had polio as a child and has been a cripple all her life.
I know what your talking about, because I have grown up with it and can see now the effects of aging on disabled people.
She is now in a wheel chair and has been employed at a disability employment agency, where she also see’s first hand the things underlined in the original article.
Ok I am not in pain, but I was unemployed for a long period and I know what is involved with dealing with Centrelink…and it ain’t pretty.
I never said that having a disability isn’t all bad, I said that dealing with Centerlink is not a full time job.
Your exactly right Liz..life ain’t a breeze and dealing with Centerlink is just another lesson in that.