| I am a woman in my mid to late
30's. in mid-1997, I was mysteriously and wrongfully dismissed from a job
I had been in since 1993
I applied for Newstart, and when I was
given it, the woman at Centrelink wrote, as if picking a number out of a
hat, that I had to apply for 8 jobs a fortnight. This meant that I applied
for jobs that i didn't want to and wouldn't normally apply for. At that
stage, 8 jobs a fortnight was such a heavy burden, that I was willing to
accept any work, even work which I had ethical problems with, just to get
Centrelink off my back.
Later, when I explained the problem to the same woman at Centrelink,
she said I didn't have to APPLY for 8 jobs, I just had to have 8 contacts
with employers, even though she
quite clearly said APPLY the first time.
So I applied for and accepted a job in a
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call-out centre, where I was given some training. during the
training, it was explained that the work was legal. `Legal", I
thought, but not ethical.
I knew how much I hated having my privacy invaded by people ringing me
at home to ask irrelevant questions about various goods or services that I
wasn't interested in. In fact, as soon as I told some of my friends about
it, the first thing they said was `don't ring me.'
I lasted about a week. As the week progressed, things became weirder
and weirder. On almost the first day, one of the other `callers'
insulted me about my name. then, one phone call I made was weird in a way
that is too difficult to describe here. |
| As it is difficult to relate to people at the best of times
with a mental illness, making cold calls to sometimes hostile people,
about Whitegoods is not easy. Also, the travelling and time commitment
caused me stress, and with all the other problems I was dealing with, as I
remember I collapsed in a heap and went on sickness benefits.
Around the same time, I would go back to my previous employer and ask
for more work. He'd say aggressively that I could work full-time,
which I would attempt, but only last two or three days into the first
week, before i'd start to feel like I was going CRAZY.
Each time I got work, I'd go off Newstart. Then I'd collapse and have
to go on to Sickness Benefits. When I had only marginally recovered, i'd
go back on Newstart and have to look for work again. This went on
for about six months as I remember.
MORE PAIN ....
It was a painful process - dealing with Centrelink staff was very
painful. I experienced most of them as aggressive and uncaring.
I was doing a little bit of tutoring, as well as volunteer work, so I
would put that on the dole form each fortnight. the question was ` did
you do any volunteer work APPROVED by Centrelink in the last
fortnight?". I wrote that I had done some at a hospital.
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They never disputed it, so i assumed they approved of it. so
each time I had done the work, I wrote it on the form, and never had any
problem with centrelink about it. After some months of this, I received a
letter from Centrelink stating that they thought it would be more
appropriate for me to be on a Disability Support Pension.
Part of the reason i was having health problems was the difficulties I
was having with Centrelink. Whilst on the pension, doing a few odd
jobs, in which I had to sign a tax form, it would be hard to keep track of
them, so I would receive aggressive letters from Centrelink saying I had
not declared employment or earnings.
i would often be given a short deadline before which to reply, with the
threat of being cut off if i didn't. It is like having to deal with the
tax dept. every few days, all year round. However, being given the
pension, was a huge relief compared to the previous situation, and it gave
me space to heal.
I had to attend a couple of interview with Centrelink doctors. I always
took someone with me, because I found the doctor's questions invasive,
aggressive, and hard to answer. I would not know the doctor beforehand,
and the first doctor in particular showed a marked misunderstanding of the
`illness'.
In one interview, I said that dealing with Centrelink was one of the
factors causing
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| me stress. After the third interview, they sent me the
letter saying I could be on the Pension for five years. that was even
better, because it meant i didn't have to attend another doctor's
interview for at least four years. that space would help with the healing
process.
A major factor in the healing process was being given the space not to
have to work, by going on the pension. Being given it for five years
is something that, if it continues, will allow me to heal substant-
ially more. It is not just that I don't have to work in a 40 hour a week
office job.
It means I have the freedom to explore a bit more, to have greater
choice and control over what I do with my time. Also, importantly, it
means that I don't feel forced to have to do work to have to work
when I desperately need to rest.
However, if I am forced to got back on to Newstrat, and do
work-for-the-dole, even for 15 hours a week, it would reate a major
set-back in the positive process which has been happening.
I am not a bad person. I have a conscience, and am making
genuine and consistent efforts to improve my health, as well as to make a
positive contribution to the community as a way of , if you like,
"earn my keep". I am very grateful for the space the
pension has allowed me, and am ever hopeful of returning to some sort of
work.
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Perhaps I will eventually become self -
supporting again. But if I am forced to seek this before I am ready to, I
can only
foresee more troubles like those I have already described. No doubt I
would deal with it, as I have always attempted to do, and I would have
more resources to do that than I had then.
However for people who are still in the very vulnerable early
stages of the illness, or in the chaos, anguish and trauma of it at its
worst, I can see nothing but very serious trouble. They will suffer deep
pain and trauma, and major problems - which are contributed to by a
system that was set up to help people, not harrass them .
Rather than being allowed to be at home without being harrassed to look
for work or forced to do work-for-the-dole, many of these people are at
risk of having to go back into psychiatric hospitals. In my experience,
most of these are not places of healing. For one thing it
can be very expensive to be in hospital.
It is a place where a lot of unhealthy people are grouped together, and
often inappropriate medications, or levels of the same, are prescribed.
These can impede recovery. Unless a person is very lucky and finds a
doctor who genuinely cares and understands (rather than simply pry
into personal matters) things will only get worse.
Also, a lot of people with mental illness have been moved out of
boarding house
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| with share kitchens, which (sometimes illegally) backpackers
are taking over. They are then put into single units by the Housing
Commission - including within highrises or similar impersonal buildings. What
is happening to our society?
______________________________
EDITORIAL
The above true
story gives us an idea
of what will happen if the Howard Government introduces a 15 hour a week
"work test" to the Disability Pension - as it has threatened to
do in the recent budget.
We would be interested to
hear more from people on the Disability Pension about how it may
effect you. Our postal address at the Embassy is on the front page
of this Website. We hope to get an email address going soon (we already
have one that we have to check out).
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