Glenys

Glenys is in her 40s. She is autistic and lives with dyslexia and a work-related injury.

A couple of years ago, she turned to a service provider for help.

‘I went there for counselling, nothing more, but somehow I ended up in the public trustee system,’ Glenys told the Royal Commission.

The provider was the ‘driving force’ behind the move to have the public trustee appointed as her financial guardian. Glenys had no say in the matter and no-one informed her of the grounds for the decision. She said the government agency ignored her human rights and unfairly presumed she was ‘incapacitated’ because of her disability.

‘They never approached my family or friends about my capacity, or my doctors. They just made the decisions on a paper hearing without even a face-to-face meeting with me. Originally when the public trustee got control, they wanted to sell my assets including my house and put me into a group home. And then take over everything and my family wouldn't have any say on anything either.’

She’d spent years trying to ‘overcome’ her disability with education and training.

‘Not to be put in mental, financial or psychological prisons … This goes back to people's prejudice and internal values, not what’s legally right for me.’

But the public trustee threw a spanner in the works there too.

‘They decided on my behalf to put me on disability benefit and the NDIS, when I wanted paid employment. They took me off further study plans that I had.’

The agency didn’t pay her bills on time, incurring extra costs. Staff demonstrated ‘coercive, controlling behaviours and unethical behaviour’, Glenys said. There was no duty of care, ‘extremely poor communication, a lack of transparency and no internal complaints system’.

Recently, she succeeded in having the trustee removed as financial administrator. Initially it refused to relinquish control.

‘I was flabbergasted when it sought a second and even a third order despite the evidence I had presented to the courts that I was capable of looking after all my own affairs.’

Glenys still has ‘ongoing problems with the public trustee’. The agency is ‘holding on’ to her mortgage and banking details and is still on all Glenys’s bills.

‘It looks like I'm not capable, so banks won’t deal with me directly. They just tell me to go away.’

Until the trustee hands back her files, she is unable to engage with a disability employment provider.

‘It's not their right to choose if I'm employable or not, but they've made those decisions and now I can't re-enter the paid employment market and I'm stuck on volunteering. It's turned my life upside down and I'd like to forget it altogether, but unfortunately, I'm still caught up in it. And there doesn't seem to be any way out because no-one's taking responsibility or accountability.’

Glenys wants to see ‘a conflict resolution system’ set up within public trustees.

‘So that court is not the only option. And an oversight body to keep public trustee systems honest and fair.’

Meanwhile, the service provider has never apologised for the harm and hardship it inflicted.

‘So I presume they just don't care. They should reflect on what the client's needs really are and what is the person’s wishes and goals.’

Instead of empowering her, Glenys said the provider used ‘suppressive tactics’ to take her choices away. It gave evidence to a tribunal and excluded her ‘mentally, socially and emotionally’ from decisions concerning her.

‘The decision-making power needs to be given back to us. It's about what we need and what we want, not what the institution thinks we want.’