Post by Deleted on Oct 5, 2013 15:20:21 GMT 7
October 01, 2013
A TRIBUNAL has overruled Centrelink to allow a schizophrenic Australian to keep receiving the disability support pension at a spiritual retreat in India.
Leon Ahern appealed to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal which found "to him, India is home" - meaning he can live there at an ashram and collect the DSP indefinitely.
He claimed to have managed his illness for the past 20 years through adherence to the teachings of Brahma Kumaris, which he says he follows seven days a week living in an ashram or a guesthouse.
Mr Ahern began receiving the DSP in 1992 and started following Brahma Kumaris in India a year later, often spending more than a year at a time there.
He was initially able to claim the DSP indefinitely while overseas however changed rules in 2004 meant if he returned to Australia as a permanent resident he would lose the DSP after 13 weeks overseas.
Mr Ahern returned to Australia in 2007, prompting Centrelink to deem him a permanent resident in Australia in 2010 preventing him claiming the DSP for long periods overseas.
The Tribunal late last month rejected the classification, finding that despite spending the past six years in Australia he was not a permanent resident.
It found he had no family ties, was itinerant, living in hostels and on walking trails and visiting a Brahma Kumaris centre in Sydney.
The Sydney centre was "no substitute for the higher spiritual advice he has access to in India," he told the Tribunal.
"India is where he wants to be. He said he is able to attend all day classes and fortnight long retreats at the ashram in India," the Tribunal found.
"He said this gives him more control and makes him happier and more at peace. 'India is home,' he said.
"I consider that, in Mr Ahern's case, there is evidence of both his clear and persistent intention to return to India and the absence of ties to Australia. In Australia he is itinerant and isolated. In India he lives in a settled manner, always at the same guesthouse whose owner he knows, and connected to the people at the ashram he attends. To him, India is home."
The Tribunal even heard Centrelink was partly to blame for him remaining in Australia for six years after he originally returned for treatment of a heart condition.
"Circumstances, including the decision made by the Secretary (of the Department of Community Services), have forced Mr Ahern to remain in Australia for these past six years."
"He has remained itinerant for all of that time, preserving his intention to return to India and his alienation from the usual indicia of residence in Australia.
"I consider that Mr Ahern is not residing in Australia. It follows that he remains entitled to indefinite portability
of his disability support pension."
A spokesman for Social Services Minister Kevin Andrews said he would request a briefing from his department.
www.news.com.au/national-news/centrelink-ordered-to-pay-man-disability-support-pension-while-he-lives-in-india/story-fncynjr2-1226731107484
A TRIBUNAL has overruled Centrelink to allow a schizophrenic Australian to keep receiving the disability support pension at a spiritual retreat in India.
Leon Ahern appealed to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal which found "to him, India is home" - meaning he can live there at an ashram and collect the DSP indefinitely.
He claimed to have managed his illness for the past 20 years through adherence to the teachings of Brahma Kumaris, which he says he follows seven days a week living in an ashram or a guesthouse.
Mr Ahern began receiving the DSP in 1992 and started following Brahma Kumaris in India a year later, often spending more than a year at a time there.
He was initially able to claim the DSP indefinitely while overseas however changed rules in 2004 meant if he returned to Australia as a permanent resident he would lose the DSP after 13 weeks overseas.
Mr Ahern returned to Australia in 2007, prompting Centrelink to deem him a permanent resident in Australia in 2010 preventing him claiming the DSP for long periods overseas.
The Tribunal late last month rejected the classification, finding that despite spending the past six years in Australia he was not a permanent resident.
It found he had no family ties, was itinerant, living in hostels and on walking trails and visiting a Brahma Kumaris centre in Sydney.
The Sydney centre was "no substitute for the higher spiritual advice he has access to in India," he told the Tribunal.
"India is where he wants to be. He said he is able to attend all day classes and fortnight long retreats at the ashram in India," the Tribunal found.
"He said this gives him more control and makes him happier and more at peace. 'India is home,' he said.
"I consider that, in Mr Ahern's case, there is evidence of both his clear and persistent intention to return to India and the absence of ties to Australia. In Australia he is itinerant and isolated. In India he lives in a settled manner, always at the same guesthouse whose owner he knows, and connected to the people at the ashram he attends. To him, India is home."
The Tribunal even heard Centrelink was partly to blame for him remaining in Australia for six years after he originally returned for treatment of a heart condition.
"Circumstances, including the decision made by the Secretary (of the Department of Community Services), have forced Mr Ahern to remain in Australia for these past six years."
"He has remained itinerant for all of that time, preserving his intention to return to India and his alienation from the usual indicia of residence in Australia.
"I consider that Mr Ahern is not residing in Australia. It follows that he remains entitled to indefinite portability
of his disability support pension."
A spokesman for Social Services Minister Kevin Andrews said he would request a briefing from his department.
www.news.com.au/national-news/centrelink-ordered-to-pay-man-disability-support-pension-while-he-lives-in-india/story-fncynjr2-1226731107484