The " Unemployables " !

According to the bureaucrats who run the Federal Department of Health Services ( DHS ) there is no disability that totally precludes a sufferer from fitting in somewhere in the work force.   The assessment criteria has been tightened and we are assured that qualified health professionals identify the impact of a persons permanent physical, intellectual or psychiatric impairment on their ability to work.

It was not always that way.  That decision once rested with the doctor treating the patient and as a result the gaining of a disability pension was assessed on a variety of factors.   Age.  Mental ability. Workskills gained - and the condition of the job market.  So many just a few years short of pension age were so unlikely to gain work even if perfectly fit that any sort of disability doomed them to become permanently unemployed.  Most doctors were merciful, and a few were perhaps a little too benevolent because the numbers on disability pensions alarmed a government trying to reign in a huge budget deficit.

The difference was that while a private doctors assessment had to gain the nod from a government medical panel that was more a formality.   Today the decision of that government panel is paramount and as a result the majority of applicants are refused - and transferred to receiving Newstart allowance, which is about one hundred and fifty dollars a week less than the disability pension.

The treatment of one applicant which drew the glare of the media spotlight in a national newspaper will bring despair to those languishing in the queue waiting for their disability application to be assessed by the DHS.

A sixty-three year old man who has received a DHS pension for the past fifteen years because of a brain injury caused by a stroke. has been transferred to Newstart and told to go and look for a job. This is despite recently suffering a heart attack that left him clinically dead and having had a leg amputated above the knee.   Amazingly, the medical panel has suggested a litany of work that he may find suitable, and that includes a taxi driver, tram or train driver.   Other suggestions included  he consider becoming a mobile security guard, telephone nursing adviser, gaming attendant or a sales representative.   There is also one other rather vital consideration that the DHS seems to have completely ignored.   This applicant lives on Norfolk island, way out in the Pacific Ocean.

That a supposedly competent and benevolent medical panel could come up with these work suggestions is ludicrous.  Apart from the fact that Norfolk island has no tram or train services, they should be aware that any person with a brain injury would be unsuccessful in gaining a commercial license to drive a taxi, let alone a tram or a train.   It is also unlikely that a security company would consider sending a one legged man to patrol warehouses and other dangerous areas where he would be expected to physically confront thieves.

Even avenues of appeal of these decisions is daunting.  His application was rejected last August and he has since been depleting his savings.  He was advised to lodge an appeal using the Freedom of Information laws - and has since been told that appeal was rejected, but without being given any sort of reason.

Perhaps in the past the granting of disability pensions became a tad lax, but this crackdown seems intent on making them totally disappear. There are people in our community who genuinely lack the ability to work.  They deserve a serious appraisal of their condition and an expectation that pensions will be granted on their merits.  This case did not meet an acceptable standard.