Can I Apply for DSP?

[Banjo]

Welcome to the board cuica.

I'll be honest with you, it would have been better to have applied last year, they raised the bar this year with new and tougher impairment tables.

It's extra hard if you can't get a health care professional on your side either. You need to keep working on this, document your symptoms and read about your conditions on the internet.

The only real help people like us can get is from Welfare Rights, they have a website and an office in each state.

I take it you have done a JCA (Job Capacity Assessment)?
Do you know what this said? You can find out by applying for your file online under the Freedom of Information Act.

I'm sorry we can't be more helpful, there are more and more people falling to the bottom of the heap and being stuck between NewStart and the DSP without getting the benefit of either.

[carvets]

What Banjo said about getting a health care professional on side is important. I had to shop around my town for someone who understood one particular problem i had. I just kept getting,..." sorry i'm not trained up on that just now and cant help you ". Eventually i found one who knew what was what and he was able to help with my application. Finding a good doctor is like finding a good mechanic,.....they're not all trained up on the latest developments and there are some who have attitudes about the unemployed ( at least i found one who was very negative toward me ). So keep looking till you find someone sympathetic and willing to help.

[roxane]

Well, it's extremely hard nowadays to qualify for DSP, but you don't have anything to lose, so go for it.
with all your doctors report you will attend a JCA, it's doesn't really matter what you've been diagnosed with, the main thing what they focus on is what you can and can't do. They will ask heaps of questions, and if they think you are capable to do whatever work, than no DSP. Favorite question seems to be if you can go to the shopping centre by yourself. If the answer is yes, it will indicate to them that you most likely can go to anywhere else, such as your workplace. So be prepared to these kind of nasty questions.