Desmond's story

My name is Desmond and I am a practising artist. My history with Centrelink and employment services goes back for over a decade, and although I recently qualified for the aged pension, even that wasn’t without problems.

I have had constant difficulties with them accepting my work as an artist. As far back as I can remember I have not felt they have understood this as a legitimate career, and it is a career. I have struggled to maintain as most artists do.  I’ve never expected them to accept this as a career, you know, as the kind of work they want you to do. But for me it is my vocation and I am passionate about it, even if it’s not reliable as a source of income.

There were all sorts of hassles with Centrelink even as I was transferred onto the aged pension because of system muck ups with reporting dates and so on. It takes hours to sort it all out, it’s the kind of thing you just have to interrupt what you are doing and sort it out. And even when you think you ‘ve sorted it out you have to keep checking because of their systems. I’ve learnt from experience to keep checking online to see what the system says you need to do, because I’ve been cut off a number of times without notification, even though I insist on receiving all their notices by post, they don’t even tell you what’s going on or what you’ve done wrong some times. I keep a journal and files on all of this so I can check back when there are mistakes.

This is all very time consuming, and it takes time away from actually doing thing that are productive, which for me include the time I spend creating my work, and doing research which relates to it. Sometimes I get paid for this research, but I can’t always anticipate in advance if I will. Working in the arts is like that. I have applied for arts council grants, of course I have, but they are in limited supply and there is so much competition, few artists actually get them.

I had to take one of these mistakes to the SS Tribunal, this is the highest I have ever had to appeal a decision. It’s quite a long story but it goes a bit like this.

For 10 years or so, I had been registered with Centrelink for volunteer work, under a Newstart scheme for mature age people. The volunteer work entailed research into artwork, and maintaining a web site. To prove my voluntary work to Centrelink, I was required every so often to get a form signed by coordinators of the program. Then, recently, the whole structure of the program changed, and it became impossible to get someone to sign for it.

This left me in a quandary: my commitments for voluntary work remained the same, though they could not be formally validated. What is more, my commitments increased, as I had been asked to do some extra research for which I would eventually be paid. Centrelink was informed of all this, but refused to renew my registration as a volunteer. Instead, they demanded I immediately declare my income as a sole trader, even though any payment was some time off. Up to a dozen different documents were required - many of which simply did not exist - and a statement for zero income was processed. I was then dismissed with the statement that they had spent enough time on me.

These events occurred a mere seven months before I reached retirement age. Centrelink ignored this, as well as my history of voluntary work and its ongoing obligations. I decided to lodge an appeal, though It was difficult to obtain a clear-cut statement, as to what decisions Centrelink had made. I then sought assistance from the Ombudsman (who unfortunately could not help me), abd forwarded the matter to an Authorized Review Officer within Centrelink.. In the meantime, I was treated as an ‘average’ Jobseeker.

Therefore I had to go to an employment services agency, a Job Network, an agency I had been to before over the years, but whose name had changed. They assigned me a case worker, an employment consultant, who I explained my long story to.

This was over the phone mind, so I had never been in and signed the contract, the employment pathway plan, so they didn’t have a plan.

Since an appeal was already lodged, I felt it would be hypocritical and compromising to agree to such a plan in writing.

I was given to understand it would take four missed appointments before they would cut me off, and that I didn’t have to go in.

But after a couple of missed appointments, when I rang but didn’t go in, the case manager put me in breach without my knowledge.

So there I was receiving a letter from Centrelink telling me I had been cut off from Newstart.

This was all quite ridiculous since everyone knew I would be eligible for the age pension in a few months time, just an unnecessary waste of time. So I had to drop everything and get down to Centrelink, after speaking to someone on the phone I had said sarcastically so you expect me to live on my savings, and he said that was a good idea, I mean come on, that was meant to be a joke. I thought he would get it.

In any case, Centrelink was already deducting regular amounts from my Newstart Allowance, to account for what little savings I did have.

Anyway so it ended up I had to go to the ES agency and have a reconnection appointment so I could sign the Employment Pathway plan. When I went in I didn’t feel the atmosphere was very friendly: my case worker tried to make a joke about people not wanting to go in there, I had to keep my thoughts to myself.

The standard document I was required to sign extended well beyond the date of my official retirement. To my surprise, my volunteer work, was recognized, stipulating the usual minimum of 15 hours per week. A schedule of monthly appointments was added, though I could conduct these over the phone rather than attend their office in person.

 Even after that the system kept getting me into trouble telling me I had fortnightly appointments and I have to keep ringing up to sort that out. I’d ring up and she’d say, yes we know why you are ringing, but then she went on holiday and the same thing kept happening, she should have been able to fix it up so thatI wouldn’t have to go through the same rigmarole.

Mind you she was a damn sight better than one of these young bucks I had a few years back who said he could make me do anything they wanted me to do.  I thought to myself, that’s what you think young man, but of course kept those thoughts to myself.

After two months, Centrelink’s Review Officer informed me they would not be altering their decision to disallow my volunteer work. Their suggestion, that I undertake an additional 15 hours of volunteer work per week that could be authorized, was ludicrous. With a workload of at least 30 hours already, I decided to take the matter to the Social Security Appeals Tribunal. I sought the advice of Welfare Rights, who thought Centrelink were probably acting within their rights, and that common sense and natural justice would, unfortunately, not prevail. They declined representing me at the hearing, so I attended the Tribunal on my own.

It turned out after all this work and research, that there was no statutory definition of the voluntary activity, that it was up to Centrelink or the employment services agency’s discretion for this particular category of activity, therefore there wasn’t a right or wrong about it. So I have to give the person at the tribunal a copy of a pamphlet I had been given about it which specified how much activity there has to be, which I had kept from a few years back as documentation about it.

The Tribunal decided in my favour, more or less. After four months, with only three months to go till retirement, the Pathways plan was amended to end on my 65th birthday. My volunteer work was recognized, though I was still required to report to a case officer every month - despite the fact that this condition is waived under Centrelink’s Mature Age Participation Scheme.

I had to persevere with the employment services agency, who mind you after this, weren’t too hard on me, seeing as we all knew I was heading towards the aged pension anyway.

Stigma is part of the experience of the way I have been treated. For me this was the most apparent as it became somewhat embarrassing to have to ask the coordinators of website I was maintaining to keep signing the form. The person I had been asking made me feel like a bludger for asking him to sign the form, he said he shouldn’t have to be doing this for all the people on the dole. But it’s an activity I have been doing for years, and become quite an expert at, this particular area of the arts, which I’ve been able to show as my voluntary activity.

Of couse employment services have often tried to get me to take jobs.

One case manager, just as the Pathway Plan was due to end, tried to get me a job at a plastics manufacturing factory. I had to go along with it for being threatened with being breached, which was a waste of everyone’s time, the lady at the factory took one look at me and knew I wasn’t right for the job, and sighed like she felt like her time had been wasted too.

I’ve always been upfront with the Job Networks about the type of work I want to do, I am highly educated and a practicing artist. It has been for many years this is my preferred work, and I have never expected them to be able to find a job for me, that’s not just how it works, but I would have taken it if they’d found me one for sure. For a number of years I have the mature age participation activity sorted with the volunteer work, even though I’ve had to keep getting the forms signed and jump through all sorts of hoops, I have been lucky it has helped me from having to get pushed into jobs.

One thing I really don’t like is the false sympathy, the way they pretend to care or make suggestions about the things you should do that are really misguided.

When my mother became unwell in Geelong, Centrelink refused to cancel an appointment so I could go down there to help. My case manager told me maybe I should move to Geelong.

Obviously caring for my sick mother was my priority at this time, but I wasn’t really that keen on moving down there,. It just seemed like a strange thing to say I felt maybe he was trying to get me off their books. 

For me it has always been a false arrangement because I’ve never seen them as there to help me find a job, not one that I want to do anyway, and some of the ways they try to help is just patronising and false, and then it’s backed up by those guys like the one I mentioned earlier, who can say ‘we can make you do anything we want’.  There’s a fundamental threat involved that cuts through all this niceness, like they know they have all this power over you and you have none.

I don’t think people should get pushed into low paid jobs, I don’t think this is right or necessarily a fair way for the system to operate. I know it happens to a lot of people but I am not one of those people suited to that sort of work, and you really have to think about how much better off you really are in a low paid job after you take into account what you lose in terms of your benefit but also your quality of life.

Being on Centrelink does take up a lot time there are constant corrections that need to be made and you learn as I have said to always keep checking.

I know there are some people you might call welfare cheats who this activity might be targeted at but it seems such as waste, because of the high volume of people they have to deal with, that they treat us all like this.

Over the years the strongest feeling I have about it is dismay. I feel dismayed about the constant surveillance, the false sympathy, the constant administrative mistakes or computer systems not talking to each other. Is this really the way the world has become that things have got this bad?

To survive in this system I have had to build up a lot of tactics and a lot of patience. I have used my research to find out what the rules are to check that I am being told the right thing. This often involves spending a long time on the phone to Centrelink and I have found that the way they handle things really depends on the type of person they have dealing with the situation. There are some genuinely helpful people there, but others…

Some times they seem to get angry and frustrated with what they have to deal with at their end and whether they mean to or not, they take it out on us, you can see it and hear it in their voices, they just sound callous. I don’t really know what’s wrong, sometimes it a training issue, but mostly I think it’s office politics and office culture how they moved my case around some times from one worker to the next.

Even in the few months since I retired, Centrelink has contrived to cut me off from payments twice. In both cases, the explanation was I had failed to report to them as required. In the first instance, I had reported, as usual, on line, but payments were suspended anyway, with no notification. In the second instance, a reporting date had been set without my knowledge - despite being assured by the pension department that reporting was no longer required, since I had no steady income. These are just the latest, in a long line of muck-ups stretching back many years. Who knows what will happen next?