Kelly's story

I am a forty year old mother house sitting with my 8 and a half year old daughter.

I am a qualified teacher and psychotherapist. Since having had my daughter my priority has been trying to find jobs that give me a good balance between my caring role as I am a single parent. Once my daughter started school I volunteered for employment services with a rural agency who were very helpful at the time. But it has been hard to find jobs I am qualified for which fit with my daughter’s school times and I have had intermittent work I have been able to find some work but it is often not what I have been qualified in. I have learnt to make ends meet living on a low income but had to give up the three bedroom house we had before and get cheaper accommodation.

I feel like I have been disadvantaged by a changing system at every turn.

Firstly, I moved from parenting payment when my daughter turned 8 in September 2012. This was despite that fact that I had remained eligible for parenting payment since her birth. The only reason I was not under the grandfathered provision which changed to Newstart on Jan 1 13 was because I changed from parenting payment partnered to parenting payment single when I left an abusive relationship.

During the time between September 2012  to January 2013, I would have lost 60 cents in every dollar I earns over $62.  As I was working 24 hours a week I would have lost all entitlement to a pension card and any payments. As I had recently started permanent at my job, If my daughter or I had become sick, I would not be able to pay the rent. So I was affected by the real fear of losing the security that the parenting payment offered, even though I would receive less than $50 a week.

I did know that you did not need to accept a job if it made you worse off which mind definitely situation it was definitely the case by quite a bit. I quit my job the day before I moved to Newstart just in case they hassled me.

I have been registered with x provider since my daughter turned 8 and have had to start attending appointments with an ES  as part of the changes that have been introduced for parenting payment recipients who were previously grandfathered. I am currently on Newstart.

My journey to the employment services agency involves a 1 hour journey which costs me $32 to make.

My employment services consultant has submitted participation reports and failures on two occasions.

The first was when I did not go to an appointment because I was sick, and so was my daughter.

I did let them know. I rang them up the day before because I was not feeling very well, and was recovering at home, The receptions was very rude to me and told me I would have to get a medical certificate.  The employment consultant put in a contact report about me because I could not afford to attend the doctor  provide them with a medical certificate. I asked them why I had to give them a medical certificate as this was not a requirement at my old centre and they told me that it was an official  requirement. I was upset about this as I did not think it fair.
I was confused as to why I had to provide a medical certificate for this agency when my previous agency did not require one  to have to provide a medical certificate in the circumstances.  I had not mentioned I was actually caring for my daughter who was unwell too, and that since it was probably just a virus we did not go to a Doctor, also because of where I live being isolated, there are not many GPs around and I did not want to waste their time nor my money.

I researched my rights and questioned the ES about the need for a certificate which  she had said it was compulsory, and found out that  this was not supported by the documentation I saw from Welfare Rights. There was some correspondence between myself and the ESC when eventually she agreed that the certificate after further explaining she would not report me for participation failure but submitted a request for contact with them.  Having this happen when I was sick and also had to care for my sick child was draining and stressful, that they are able to exercise discretion. I wondered why she had told me and tried to enforce a rule that wasn’t actually really a rule, and this made me doubt and mistrust her decision making - whether what she was trying to get me to do was based on real requirements or just her decisions about me and my case. I felt bullied

In the second incident, my payment was withheld until I contacted Centrelink because I didn't attend an appointment that I was given less that 24hours notice about. This appointment was scheduled after an incident in which I took the journey and paid the $32 only to find that I’d arrived at the ES provider they were having a staff meeting and that my appointment would be rescheduled for 2 weeks hence.

 I told them I could not attend an interview they only gave me 24 hours about. I had already arranged to help at my daughter’s school where they were doing Naplan testing and the teacher needed help. I objected to attending this appointment because I could not afford to attend fortnightly appointments and objected to it as I felt bullied and that it was unreasonable to suddenly say I had to attend without altering the EPP.

I pointed out that my EPP said I only had to go to appointments every month and that it did not seem right that I should have to go back in 2 weeks. I mentioned this to Centrelink who said they could not do anything about it.

I already had arranged to do something that I thought was a legitimate thing to do be doing, like helping my school, but the ESC told me that was not a reasonable excuse hung up on me :and applied a participation failure.

I was told my helping the school was voluntary activity that did not contribute to my 15 hours of participation even though I was using this as a way of networking with the school community to improve my employment prospect. I think doing things like that like helping the school are legitimate things to do because of the benefits to the community, but the ES agencies don’t see these hold any value compared to coming into appointments.

When I found out they were going to withhold part of my payment until I attended an appointment I felt really scared and worried.  I initially refused to attend further appointments with this ES due to being so scare of being threatened. I offer to see anyone else but her but they said that was not an option and if i didn't agree to see her they couldn't reinstate my payments.  I agreed to an appointment but knew I couldn't attend and as I was leaving town the next week I decided to changed my address and leave early to avoid this threatening situation.

 I felt like it was not fair they one person could have so much control over my sense of safety and security and this was despite doing everything I could to find a job.  The threat of withholding my payment made me afraid of my ES consultant and it felt as if the punishment did not fit the crime, that the threats they should use should be more like how you would punish children depending on how serious what they had done wrong rather than one punishment for everybody. I was shocked that one person could have so much power and use it so readily, when I am a mum, trying to find work to fit in with my family and trying to look after my daughter.

Although I did get the money back later, I felt like my employment consultant was in a position to bully me and force me into doing arbitrary things that did not have much to do with helping me find a job. 

If you don't do an activity your employment worker says you have to do you get reported, no matter how unreasonable that request and what one worker thinks is reasonable is totally different to what another worker says. It is totally unregulated by DEEWR. The welfare rights centre even say "Some providers will use participation reports as a last resort; others will use them more readily". There is no standards on reporting and that allows people like me to be harassed and threatened. I am just lucky I can stand up for myself but I pay the price by the added stress. The time I spend writing complaints could be spent on finding a job.

They did not send me to any job interviews or offer me any services except the appointments I attended. There was some training I had been interested in doing to help me extend my qualifications which I paid for myself but there was no offer of supporting me to do this.

I feel the difference between the way I was treated by the agency back in NSW and in Qld was dependant on an individual ES workers personal view as to what they judge as a reasonable excuse which leaves the system open to those who wish to use their position to threaten others that I had participation requirements later which seemed to make it as if I just  had to do what I was told, whether it was reasonable or not. Because I decided to stand up for myself with my employment consultant, it started to feel as if she had taken exception to me. 

You get to point where you have to stand up for yourself and the right of your child to be supported. It makes me frustrated and angry that I am caught in this system of unjust change and the affect this is having on my ability to feel secure in raising my daughter.

When I went to the employment services agency I asked them if they could help me update my resume, as I felt pretty confident about my ability to job search it was just the resume I wanted help with as I don’t have outlook or office on a computer I can use at home. It has been 6 months since I was registered and in all this time, I still have not had the help I wanted with my resume.  when I ask for help I was told by my ES that they were 3 staff short in the office and to do it myself

It seems as if the ES is playing bad cop to Centrelink’s good cop. At least with Centrelink you feel like they are following a procedure, because they are checking on what the right thing to do all the time, whereas the ES provider just seems to be doing what she likes.

I was due to have an appointment with my ESP tomorrow,  I am refusing to go and will change my address and leave town earlier rather than having to confront this unpleasant sitauton but I have been feeling anxious and stressed about it, since I have been waiting all this time just to get help with my resume, but now I feel like the ESC has something against me, and am very frustrated and stressed about having to go in there not to get the help I really need. I have thought about complaining but wasn’t sure if this would place me in confrontation and this has worried me about doing it, since I haven’t found any advice at the agency about what the process is for complaints. I have the DEEWR complaints line but didn't really think that would help my situation much.

I think single parents on Newstart are treated unfairly when situations make it difficult for them to attend and to meet their participation requirements. The threat of having a payment taken off you when have a child who relies on you to feed and house them is extremely stressful and I was placed in this threatening position just because I was sick and could not make the hour journey to the office and could not afford to see a doctor. I was placed in that threatening situation again just because my employment worker changed my EPP without any consultation or consideration for my circumstances. Everytime I was threatened with participation failure either by Centrelink or the job centre it brought up a very real fear that  the decision of one person could change everything in my family. We could be living in a tent surviving on very little and that is not a stable and safe situation for a child to grow up in.

I feel like my ability to have stood up for myself against the feeling of being bullied by my ESP is because of my education and the way I have set up myself so that I can be independent and empowered. I have learnt to live really frugally on parenting payment, and when I have been working, to live below my means, so that I have been able to save a bit of money to have behind me when I am not working. I know that I can make ends meet by going back to basics, but not everyone is able to live like that. I guess this makes me fairly unique that I have learnt how to live back to basics and feel confident that I can do that, whereas a lot of women don’t have the material independence to survive like that and need to take on jobs to keep their living standards at a level like that. 

I know of a lot of women there who don’t have that ability who are being forced into low paid jobs who are really stressed and worried about what’s happening to their kids while they are not home, and just keeping on top of everything they have to do.

I became involved in this research because I have an interest in advocacy and am part of the Facebook group, where Simone the researcher posted the ad about the research.

When I think about how I feel people should be treated by ES agencies I draw on my experience as a psychologist, the case management approach that is based on positive psychology and approaches, to help people grow positively, not just based on threats like this system is. The threats just make us feel bullied and disempowered and it seems to me like the punishments they use should fit the crime but there is no subtlety to it. There does not seem to be any firm guidelines of the situations when ES can report so it is very difficult when changing providers to know what my obligations are. Even services like getting my resume up to date have not been provided, and now I am upset about the way the EC has treated me, going to the ES agency does not even seem like I am going to get any help, and I feel a sense of dread about going there.

The language that I have encountered whilst dealing with Centrelink is very punitive. Like participation failure, why can’t they use terms like disengagement from service rather than saying I failed- I am sure unemployed people have heard that term enough. They use the term 'release from service" when I left my employment agency which made me think of being released from a jail. It sure felt that way.

I have been researching some ideas on the tough love approach of the government and employment services. I wonder what the research is on this being an effective method of engaging people in employment? Surely reducing someone's benefits and pushing them and their family further into poverty, isn't an effective solution. It seems like the government and employment services are both following the same tough love approach and both are failing.