I believe that David’s knowledge and “lived” experience would have and could still be of immense value to those involved in writing government policy relating to disability. His rationale, education and well supported opinions appear to be far superior to many of those involved with the implementation of the DSP Impairment Tables back in 2011/2012.

I personally do not believe that the current system is the best system. There are significant flaws in the assessment and appeal process. This would not be acceptable in the public or private sector so why should it be acceptable for the disabled.

Two doctors at Centrelink's Health Professionals Advisory Unit both supported my eligibility for DSP and this report was disregarded by a young psychologist Job Capacity Assessor at Centrelink who was assessing my physical injuries when she cancelled my DSP. This document was not listed in the evidence in the Authorised Review Officer report at Centrelink. Centrelink failed to make this document available to the SSAT until after the hearing and decision had been made even though I had requested it under FOI weeks prior to the hearing and was denied a request for an extension of time to receive it. This document is even noted in the SSAT report as being part of the decision when it is date stamped as arriving at the SSAT two days after the decision. A report written by a high profile doctor who represented Australia at the National Pain Summit was disregarded and even undermined in the SSAT report. In addition to this the AAT was provided with a comprehensive report from an Occupational Physician clearly supporting my eligibility for the Disability Support Pension. The AAT were also provided with the HPAU doctor’s letter clearly supporting eligibility.

All this and then receiving an account for $14,725.14 from Centrelink the day after the AAT affirmed their decision.

Perhaps Kevin Andrews also needs to consider placing independent doctors at the SSAT and AAT hearings and implementing some strict controls over Centrelink reviews.

There is no justice for the disabled in Australia!

justicefordisabled@iinet.net.au

Hasbeen: Brail!
Rhrosty.

Really Rhrosty, a computer produces brail from OLO posts for you to read.

Wonderful.

Hello Readers,

I just wanted to thank you all for your positive feedback on my opinion piece. It is also great to receive encouragement and to hear of other people’s stories.

Thank you too Hasbeen, for illustrating the types of out-dated right wing views that can prevail when vocational training is mistaken for education. And for reminding us that some still understand ‘welfare’ as meaning only income support, whereas it includes many more taxation breaks and other public goods.

I am sure that the English theoretical physicist and cosmologist, Professor Stephen Hawking, would be amused by your suggestion that people who cannot feed themselves would not be able to access this forum.

There are three main reasons as to why people with profound disabilities might not be able to gain and continue in the workforce:

1: The medical conditions. Often people with profound disabilities are just too impaired to be able to work.

2: The built and social environments are not designed for us. While we are slowly changing these by installing ramps into building and educating the community about the various disabilities, unfortunately so much of our world has evolved on the presumption that everybody can walk, talk, drive and etc. People who are unable to do these types of basic tasks are at a significant disadvantage.

3: There is a presumption that unemployment, or under-employment, is the individual’s fault. Full employment takes two to tango. Yes, the individual needing to want to work (and most people with disabilities do), but employers must be willing to want to employ us. Unfortunately, this is rare. Even the Australian Government has halved the number of people with disability it employs over the last decade. Furthermore, employers are reducing their staff: how can we compete with this?

Incidentally, one thing that went unmentioned in my article was that I have not been unemployed since before 1 January 2000, for a number of years I was earning close to six figures, and a few months in 2013 I held three jobs. I too am a tax-payer and have been for many years.

David

What a self-righteous bit of bumph David, you poor dear.

Here is the other side of the story.

I was equipment officer for a sporting club in a country village. We had a pony club, little athletics & a soccer club all sharing the same grounds, forming the club.

A clever bloke arranged for us to be given an old railway house. A local trucking company transported the house, & another small welding company made house stumps for us.

A few working bees had the house installed, & work started on making it a clubhouse, with a canteen, office space, storage area for equipment & toilets. After a major fund raising effort volunteers installed the $17,000 of cable to give us power, & a couple of flood lights for night training.

Toilets were a major problem when soccer carnivals or large sports days were held. A student architect drew up our plans including 3 toilets & a urinal, along with the rest of the fit out.

Then the council advised they had a complaint that we did not have a ramp for disabled to get in, or a disabled toilet.

We started building a ramp with some donated, borrowed & stolen timber, but it was still going to cost $26,000 for it & a landing. The toilet was harder. We could only fit one disabled toilet instead of the three planned. This was insufficient for the soccer club, or little athletics. Then the source of borrowed portable toilets dried up.

It all became too hard. Little athletics moved to another village, 25 kilometer away, the soccer club closed down, as the effort became too much for the few workers, & it all folded.

The horse club use the half done building for storage, & piddle in the bushes I suppose, all because some "disabled" stood on their dignity & demanded what they would never use. Thanks to one of them, 140 kids no longer have sorting activities in our village.

Since then "disabled" is to me a dirty word, & forever will be

Hasbeen how did the Little Athletics manage in the other village? How did the horse/pony club manage to avoid the council in your village without a disabled toilet? Why did the source of portable toilets dry up? Is this really something you can blame the disabled for or did something else happen? Perhaps if you had asked the horse club manager how they got around the problem and persisted a bit more your club would have kept running. One in five Australians are disabled. It would have been highly likely that more than one disabled, (or even aged), person would have visited your club. It is very easy to blame others for lack of success especially those who are in a vulnerable position.

It is usually better to accept responsibility for mistakes/failure to meet challenges and work out what went wrong and strive to do better next time just like successful business people or other clubs do.