Bert and Cathryn
Content Warning: These stories are about violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation and may include references to suicide or self-harming behaviours. They may contain graphic descriptions and strong language and may be distressing. Some narratives may be about First Nations people who have passed away. If you need support, please see Contact & support.
Bert is in his 50s. Since a workplace accident more than a decade ago, he has lived with a spinal injury, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and anxiety.
‘I picked up the last box and that was it,’ Bert told the Royal Commission. ‘Ruptured [a] disc in my spine like a tyre bursting on a car. I've had five mental hospital visits, two spinal surgeries, a hernia surgery, an opioid addiction … I'm struggling.’
Bert’s wife, Cathryn, gave up her business to care for him while he fights the workers compensation agency for financial support.
‘It's destroyed our family’, said Cathryn. ‘There's been incorrect reports put in about him. They send people to his doctors’ appointments that then try and bully the doctor into changing his capacity on his certificate.’
Bert said the agency’s adversarial system is abusive.
‘If you haven't got a solicitor, you can't talk to them. They won't talk to you. So, you've got to engage a solicitor, and he's got to negotiate and navigate it for you.’
To receive compensation, Bert needs a doctor to assess his ‘whole person impairment’.
‘[Bert's] solicitor was sending him to one of our doctors, and they'll give him a percentage,’ said Cathryn. ‘The [agency] would then counteract it and send it to one of their doctors who's supposed to be independent. But there is a pattern of them favouring who’s paying for the report.’
Cathryn said the agency’s doctor assessed Bert’s impairment at 14 per cent, one per cent below the threshold he needs to receive compensation.
‘A few months later, after we'd seen [Bert's] doctor and he gave him the 28 [per cent], they decided that they preferred their doctor's 14 per cent.’
Bert said his impairment has since been reassessed at 51 per cent.
Centrelink denied Bert the Disability Support Pension ‘because he wasn't medically stable’. His disability isn’t considered ‘medically stable’, because it might still improve or deteriorate.
‘I found out this morning that the [agency] denied it and flushed me down the toilet, so I'm kind of lost at the moment.’
Bert said the agency also keeps changing his case managers.
‘I've had five case managers this year. Every time my file gets handed to another case manager, something goes missing, or they misinterpret it, and then I'm in trouble again, and I haven't done anything.’
For example, Bert’s doctors prescribed cannabis oil to treat his chronic pain, but Cathryn said the case manager denied the treatment.
‘I queried, well, what medical qualifications do you have? None. They've got absolutely no medical qualifications to make that decision.’
Bert said the constant fighting with the agency ‘obliterated’ his life.
‘I don’t have friends that come around here anymore. Nobody wants to see me because I’m a cranky old prick because I’ve got so much anger and frustration for having to fight for 12 years. I’m punch drunk, I’m mentally fucked in the head from what they’ve done to me over this time.’
Disclaimer: This is the story of a person who shared their personal experience with the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability through a submission or private session. The names in this story are pseudonyms. The person who shared this experience was not a witness and their account is not evidence. They did not take an oath or affirmation before providing the story. Nothing in this story constitutes a finding of the Royal Commission. Any views expressed are those of the person who shared their experience, not of the Royal Commission.