It’s a joke

[viciouscycle]

I have a degenerative spinal disease have done since birth I’ve tryed working most of my life I have so many certs I’ve paid for myself to try different avenues of work and easier on my back and the chronic pain I suffer especially when it’s a daily L5 disk pinching my S1 ouch really sux  to name a few I have bobcat,excavator,HR,cert4 PT, fully qualified life guard,all my hospitality and gaming I can keep going paid for myself I might add.. anyway for atleast 10 years now they will except my disability for an

 3 month exemption every 3 months and except it to put me with a disability provider but won’t except it for a disability payment or pension and expect me to work and now won’t except my doc certs wtf… in the very word degenerative means it gets worse and worse the system is a joke designed to make u fail and be forced off the payment one less payment they gotta dish out.. I’m also chronicle depressed and have anxiety and atleast 10yrs of history with all of these I have15 diff med certs I’ve uploaded and have shown just in past 3 yrs but not good enough so off I go to pay for more doc apps on an already not coping can’t survive as is payment with kids I get 790$ in bank a fortnight my rents 650 of that can go on and on and they wonder why suicidal thoughts creep into our heads but to scared to do it kids dnt deserve it I won’t give centerlink  the satisfaction but feeling trapped and stuck is worse than it all wish I wasn’t on it u think I like this they treat us like where all drug addict dole bludgers fkn joke

[indigo22]

Hi Viciouscycle,

Welcome to the forums and thank you for reaching out to us.

I can empathise with much of what you have said. I was in a similar situation with Centrelink about 12 years ago and they did not make anything easy. I was refused Disability Payment because the psychologist who did my interview thought she knew better than the doctor that had been treating me for the prior 4 years. I had the option to appeal, which I did and was refused again.

At that time there were 3 levels of appeal, so I appealed again and was refused. The final level of appeal was at the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, which is similar to a court but without all the formality. I represented myself during the hearing after reading up on the criteria on which Disability Payment is assessed. I was fortunate that the judge presiding over my case that day was a doctor and having looked over everything returned a verdict that the decision was to be overturned due to the fact that the evidence supplied by my doctor had not been taken into account along with a psychiatrist report that had been provided during the appeal process. This whole appeal process took 2 years of my life and I was struggling financially for all of that time. I too had suicidal ideation during those 2 years because there appeared to be no light at the end of the tunnel.

I have heard that many things in respect to Disability Payment have changed since then so I don't have any up to date advice to offer. The only thing I can say is that if you have the option to appeal, then you should go for it. You won't lose anything by going through the process, but there is much to gain if you are successful.

I am sorry you are going through all of this, if they could only recognise that making it so difficult has even more of a negative effect on a persons ill health. No one can start to get better under those circumstances.

I wish you all the best and hope that at some point your situation is resolved. Please feel free to continue this conversation if you wish.

Take care,

indigo

[yggdrasil]

Hi viciouscycle,

I'm so sorry to hear about how tough things are at the moment. I relate to a lot of your frustrations. I don't have much advice other than to remain as calm as possible when dealing with them, but not be afraid to escalate (e.g. ask to speak to manager, ask for ID numbers of conversations etc etc) if you think something is being done incorrectly. I really hope you can hang on until circumstances are better. All the best,

yggdrasil