Have you ever tried dealing with Centrelink? Don’t bother, you might as well be dealing with the Knights Templar or a secret society. I have been dealing with them – or ‘trying’ to deal with them – for a year and have not progressed one inch. Out of frustration/desperation I have written to my state Ombudsman. My letter appears below. For the sake of this article I have removed my name and replaced it with ‘The Faceless Man’. A fitting name, I feel.
To the NSW Ombudsman,
I am the full-time carer for my mother, who suffers from advanced stages of Motor Neuron Disease. She is what the medical professional and doctors like to call a ‘worst case scenario’ in regards to terminally ill sufferers.
There truly is no disease more debilitating or brutal as Motor Neuron Disease.
A former youth drug and alcohol councilor, who also taught and volunteered at PCYC, is reduced to living out her few remaining years without control of her muscles.
She is my mum and for over a year now she has been my job.
I am being punished by the DHS for this. In August last year I applied for the Carers Payment to help me in this desperate situation. It has now been almost one year and I still haven’t received the Carers Payment despite supporting doctor’s evidence and application requirements being met. I’ve lodged various complaints/enquiries but these have been to no avail.
Calls lead nowhere, visits to DHS offices result in rebuttals and every DHS representative – whether they be a Centrelink staff member or job provider agent – falls back to a chain of command, conveniently absolving them from the issue. Permission to see the Centrelink social worker was denied despite the Centrelink website advising that I can in fact see the social worker if I should ask for one.
Am I crazy for feeling discriminated against for being a carer by the DHS?
I am forced to look for work when I clearly cannot, constantly earning me payment suspensions from my job seeker payment. No exceptions are given. So tell me, have I been failed by the DHS and will you help me?
‘The Faceless Man’
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