Learn from the mistakes of others

centrelink gives the appearance of integration, but in practice there is little evidence of it.

australia's social security system is not a system, but a bundle of vaguely related systems that have a common shop front, and a maze of different rules, procedures, policies, and agencies. apart from having a single shop front, the federal components of the systems display little evidence of coherence, efficiency or effectiveness - at least not for the 'customer'™ or 'client'™. there is some indication that effort has been made for the various organisations involved. but just barely.

centrelink provides a shop front and clearinghouse for ten federal government agencies ... each having their own rules, criteria, application processes and so forth. the people-face is the same people, but the backend is different - appearances are deceptive.

while the federal government is moving to make 'assistance' programs more similar, there is no indication that they are interested in making them more effective (except in terms of budget 'savings').

i am about to attempt to transfer from austudy[1] to newstart[2], which provide the same payment rate, but significantly different benefits. for example student's on austudy are not eligible for rent relief, have to apply for a health care card[3] every three months (because it is an education dept payment, not social security dept payment). student's can earn more before it impacts on their benefit, but they have to to make up for their exclusion from some of the automatic benefits available to newstart recipients. newstart recipients, however, must show evidence of looking for work. every fortnight.

the newstart system is designed for low income jobs. you have to take whatever work is offered to you, or your benefit can be cut off for months. which can make it awfully hard to eat.

for those who are economic rationalists, or neocons, this sounds reasonable. you shouldn't suck off the teat of taxation if you could be a taxpayer. we have some awfully overqualified cleaners in australia. it does seem a waste to have provided tens of thousands of dollars of tertiary education[4] to a person then insist that they should work as a cleaner, when with some assistance they could have been an analyst in a well paying job. or a lawyer.

meanwhile, the madness continues regarding my application for the disability support pension[5] (aka dsp). i have provided my diagnosis[6] along with duplicated details on a fistful of forms. now i have to get a form filled out by a doctor who isn't qualified to diagnose my 'condition' but does have a provider number so that my form can be processed. and i'll have to put up with being diagnosed again by someone in the dept social security [who may or may not be qualified to do so, but the dept is a law unto itself]

potentially, i could be told that for social security purposes, i'm not an aspie. while for every other purpose i am. [and i'm told that auties/aspies are wierd.] with the fed govt out to cut the number of dsp recipients, this is not an unlikely scenario.

i really, really, really hope i get a positive call soon. because the alternative is hell on earth. after all, how can an articulate, highly educated lawyer (a) be autistic, and (b) be unemployed.

to get taken seriously as a person with a significant disability, i either have to overstate my case, or be imprecise in my description of my disability. just because i use the same words as 'normal' people, doesn't mean that what i'm describing is 'normal'. [i've been told that asperger's syndrome is (a) something kids have, or (b) not a 'real' disability, or that i 'don't look autistic' ... wtf?]

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[1] austudy: payment for adult students people >=25yo)
[2] newstart: payment for adults people >=25yo)
[3] health care card: not only grants access to medical and pharmaceutical benefits, also evidence of low income.
[4] but i forget. uni is becoming a 'user pays' thing now. just another commodity reserved for those in the market™ who can afford it. those who already benefit from it).
[5] disability support pension dsp): payment for people who are so disabled that they cannot work for at least 2 years.
[6] which is determinative for other government departments

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