A woman left with no movement in her neck following a horrific fall was forced to drain her superannuation after being denied the disability support pension for two years, an inquiry has been told.
A Senate inquiry examining the purpose, intent and adequacy of the payment heard on Monday from people with lived experience of the process, welfare and disability advocates, as well as legal and health groups.
Kath Sutherland told the inquiry she was living in a Coogee flat and working a full-time job in a “senior role” before she broke her neck in a bathroom fall in July 2016.
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Sutherland said after the fall “life changed forever” and recalled how her neurosurgeon told her they don’t “normally see my injury in someone who’s still breathing or not … a quadriplegic”.
After fusion surgery and three more operations between July 2016 and May 2017, Sutherland now has no movement in her neck and lives with chronic pain.
“I am left with an unprotected airway, so choking is a risk,” she said. “My jaw is locked closed, so everything was through a straw. Forget about brushing your teeth.
“[I] have no movement in my neck, so any turn that I do is down at core level. Just imagine crossing the road, it takes a while.”
Despite this, Sutherland told the inquiry she was rejected for the disability support pension multiple times over a two-year period.
She was placed on the then $40-a-day Newstart payment – now known as jobseeker which increased by $4 a day earlier in the year – and began experiencing depression.
“I was placed on Newstart and received $662 a fortnight, my rent was $800 a fortnight,” Sutherland said.
“I was always behind. I survived for two years on this level of income. My landlord would allow me to get into arrears and I withdrew superannuation under the financial hardship provision.
“I was lucky I hadn’t consolidated all my super accounts as you could only withdraw every six months. That is how I survived during the lengthy process of applying for the DSP [disability support pension]. I have very little super left.”
After a final surgery in May 2017, Sutherland said she was still awaiting a decision from Centrelink.
She argued her condition was now fully treated, as is required under the rules, but a government assessor disagreed.
“By this stage, I was wishing I had died in the initial accident,” Sutherland said.
Sutherland was finally approved for the disability support pension in May 2018, and said life on the payment – $952.70 a fortnight for a single person – was still a “financial struggle”.
She said she had to ration her psychology appointments and could not afford to see a physiotherapist.
Guardian Australia revealed last month how another Victorian man traumatised after he lost everything in the Black Summer bushfires was denied access to the disability support pension, leaving him reliant on charities.
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Eligibility for the disability support pension is determined by a series of “impairment tables”, which were tightened by the former Julia Gillard government and are currently being reviewed by the Scott Morrison government.
The inquiry heard on Monday how the application process was often lengthy and complicated, the eligibility rules were too strict – excluding most cancer patients for example – and the payment itself was inadequate.
Charmaine Crowe, a senior advisor at the Australian Council of Social Service, said about 36% of people receiving the lower jobseeker payment were classified as sick or had a disability.
“Behind these numbers are tragic stories, people being put through the wringer just to get an essential income support so they can eat or put a roof over their head,” she said.
Crowe said recipients should get a top-up “disability and illness supplement” of “at least $50 per week”, which she said reflected the shortfall in costs faced by people with disability.
Kasy Chambers, the executive director of Anglicare Australia, said a new payment was needed for people caught between jobseeker and the disability support pension.
“Disability benefit” would be paid at the same rate as the disability support pension to those who have a temporarily illness or who are dealing with the lengthy application process for the pension.
Another issue raised by critics is the need for a person’s condition to be “fully diagnosed, treated and stabilised”.
The Cancer Council and Oncology Social Work Australia and New Zealand said this meant cancer patients were usually unable to access the disability support pension.
“We need something that looks like the old sickness allowance but is paid at the DSP rate,” said Kim Hobbs, of Oncology Social Work Australia and New Zealand.
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The inquiry also heard calls for the government to scrap the “program of support”, which essentially places an 18-month job search requirement on some disability support pension applicants.
Giancarlo de Vera, senior manager of policy at People with Disability Australia, told the inquiry the rules needed to be “rewritten”.
“They must not only consider functional impairment, but also the discrimination and lack of accomodations that restricts … our ability to work in employment” he said.
“The slim prospect of finding a suitable job is not a safety net. Accessing the DSP can be summed up as trial by humiliation.”
The department of social services is expected to appear at a later hearing.
Crisis support services can be reached 24 hours a day: Lifeline 13 11 14; Suicide Call Back Service 1300 659 467; Kids Helpline 1800 55 1800; MensLine Australia 1300 78 99 78; Beyond Blue 1300 22 4636
