Centrelink is a Bastard

That's right, a bastard. Maybe not in a literal sense but that organisation has certainly pissed me off this week. For those readers not familiar with Australian social security have a look <--HERE--> for some background.

For a while now I've been receiving Disability Support Pension for an injury that prevents me from doing a lot. Not too long ago I received notification that the pension I was receiving was up for review so I attended the review interview and, to my disgust, found out that it was one of little Johnny Howard's neo-liberal 'get people off of their arses and supporting themselves' drives. I was asked, basically, to show cause as to why I should continue to receive the pension. The Centrelink officer in charge of my case gave me some forms for my doctor to fill out. No problem? Big problem! My doctor had recently retired so I was expected to see a doctor who had no knowledge of my disability. Naturally he was reluctant to fill out the form so just indicated that he was unsure.

This wasn't good enough for Centrelink who needed more information so they gave me a whopping whole month to find it. You see, neo-liberalism is all about removing the individual from this sort of process; there is no scope for my claim to be given 'special consideration', I am the same as every other number on the Centrelink database. Neo-liberals really need to discover the difference between qualitative and quantitative. Anyhow, I inquired about what would happen to me if I was deemed ineligible for the pension. My case manager happily informed me that I would be placed on another payment that I was eligible for. As I'm a full-time student I wasn't too worried at this point as I would be entitled to a student benefit; still, not the pension. You see I needed some 'special consideration' as my treating doctor (funnily enough 'treating doctor' is the name of the form I needed filled out. Absurd that I don't actually need my treating doctor to fill it out) had retired and the orthopedic outpatients department of the State hospital that I was receiving specialist treatment from had a two year wait list.

Sadly, I decided that I'd just accept my fate (although I'll never vote Liberal now no matter how rich I become John!) and be transfered over to Austudy. This is where the real problems began. I wasn't transfered! I went to the bank last Thursday to make a withdrawal and discovered that my bank account was empty! I hurried on over to Centrelink to see what was going on and was promptly informed that I was no longer a client of theirs; I had been canceled. This was a shock, I was supposed to be transfered, were my study details not apparent? Even so, why hadn't I been transfered to Newstart, the payment for the unemployed? After two days of being shrugged off between person to person, department to department I was informed that I wasn't to be transfered over to another payment, I never was. It turns out that my previous case manager had been lying to me; this never happens. I was informed that I had to reapply for a payment and that this process takes 21 days. I explained that that would mean that I would have no income for six weeks all up but, as mentioned above, neo-liberalism is unkind to the individual. My appeals fell on deaf ears.

So this is where I currently lay; poor and pissed off. Centrelink has a fiduciary duty to its clients, of which I was one (and, fingers crossed, soon to be again), that was flatly abused. I am in the process of making formal complaints about this situation to all levels of Centrelink management and all levels of Government but I'm not hopeful for a positive outcome. Frankly I just don't mean enough. I'll post all my letters of complaint here, and any replies that I don't expect to come, with the tag 'Centrelink Bastard if anyone cares to follow my predicament. It'd be nice to get paid soon though, I've got text books to buy for next semester. It's interesting how Centrelink is so happy to jeopardise a situation that will remove its clients from welfare dependency in the long term for such short term triviality.