Post by ding on Dec 12, 2015 3:50:51 GMT 7
Advice from welfare rights recently about applying for portability was pretty sobering. I might have about 100 points spread across various tables, and any 2 conditions combined will keep me from working at all, let alone for 8 hours a week. But it was unlikely that any single table would meet 20 points, so basically - don;t do it.
Now this is specific to MY case. 3 separate spinal injuries, chronic fatigue, permanent injury and partial loss of movement to both legs, same with both wrists, impscting on habds, which is hwy you see wo many typos if I miss correcting them :-) and permanent damage to both shoulders. Plus major depressive disorder, bladder retention causing infectinos AND bladder incontinence (work that one out!) serious degeneration of the lumbar spine to hte extent that a major hospital that si known for spinal work said 'there's really nothing we can do at the moment to fix this'. Loss of all feeling in my feet so I can walk on bitumen that is melting in the sun in bare feet and not know it is hot until people tell me I'm leaving a trail of blood on the concrete footpath. No feeling in the skin of my legs from the waist down, so I can get into a scalding bath or shower and until the water hits my upper body I can't feel the heat. And I fall often crossing roads if I try to hurry a coouple of steps, or fall negotiating stairs if I don't hold the rails. And as often as not if I manage to get in a squattign positon which is nearly impossible due to my ankles not bending enough - I can;t get back up without pulling using my arms, which in turn is aggravated by the shoulder dislocations..
There's more, but those are the basic problems. However, none of them individually adds up to 20 points in a single table, and welfare rights suspect that if I am assessed under the current table there will be a log fight that they don;t have the resources to win.
Yet I know someone who is on DSP because he suffers from agorophobia and cannot drive outside his 'familiar places'. Who has an $80 an hour consulting job that Centrelink is happy with, who claims a loss so he pays no tax and gets full benefits and has no problem driving to places he's never been before to meet potential customers.
The system sucks.
Now this is specific to MY case. 3 separate spinal injuries, chronic fatigue, permanent injury and partial loss of movement to both legs, same with both wrists, impscting on habds, which is hwy you see wo many typos if I miss correcting them :-) and permanent damage to both shoulders. Plus major depressive disorder, bladder retention causing infectinos AND bladder incontinence (work that one out!) serious degeneration of the lumbar spine to hte extent that a major hospital that si known for spinal work said 'there's really nothing we can do at the moment to fix this'. Loss of all feeling in my feet so I can walk on bitumen that is melting in the sun in bare feet and not know it is hot until people tell me I'm leaving a trail of blood on the concrete footpath. No feeling in the skin of my legs from the waist down, so I can get into a scalding bath or shower and until the water hits my upper body I can't feel the heat. And I fall often crossing roads if I try to hurry a coouple of steps, or fall negotiating stairs if I don't hold the rails. And as often as not if I manage to get in a squattign positon which is nearly impossible due to my ankles not bending enough - I can;t get back up without pulling using my arms, which in turn is aggravated by the shoulder dislocations..
There's more, but those are the basic problems. However, none of them individually adds up to 20 points in a single table, and welfare rights suspect that if I am assessed under the current table there will be a log fight that they don;t have the resources to win.
Yet I know someone who is on DSP because he suffers from agorophobia and cannot drive outside his 'familiar places'. Who has an $80 an hour consulting job that Centrelink is happy with, who claims a loss so he pays no tax and gets full benefits and has no problem driving to places he's never been before to meet potential customers.
The system sucks.