Hello...
My brother suffers from Schizophrenia and has been on a DSP since returning to Australia in 2011 and on the UK version whilst residing in the UK for the 15 years prior to this.
He is mid 50's now and still lives with my parents who moved to Ireland 12 months ago.
My mum contacted Centrelink to ask about the portability of both their aged pensions and his DSP and was told that they would be able to continue.
What she wasn't told was he should have had a review before leaving in order to 'secure' his DSP and after four weeks of leaving his pension has been stopped. He has had nothing for the past year.
He has never worked and has never lived alone and in order to reinstate his pension Centrelink have told him he needs to be re-assessed by a Dr in Ireland. His new Dr advised my mum (who acts on his behlaf) that there is no way he could provide the level of detail required to complete the documentation.
We appealed the centrelink decision which was unsuccessful based upon the 4 week rule and I now have an Administrative Appeal Tribunal hearing on Tuesday to challenge the decision again.
If this is unsuccessful which I fully expect it to be as they are only focusing on the 4 week rule I'm wondering if I just have him fly back to Australia.....re-apply which I would think would be accepted and then once it's reinstated have him return to Ireland and his home with my parents.
It's brutal how they can cut someone off on a technicality and provide no support around how to resolve a situation which is clearly based on poor information and a minor oversight.
No support provided and I'm so angry.
Just venting really and would be interested in anyone who has had to reapply or had issue when moving overseas or with the AAT.
Thanks all.
