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The Ministry of Social Services tried to prevent a woman living in pain "almost 24 hours a day" from having access to the disability badistance pension, saying she was able to work because she she had volunteered at a children's hospital.
Natasha Thomson, however, was granted access to pay of $ 450 a week after a two-year battle that culminated in the Administrative Appeal Tribunal's summit.
The 26-year-old Melbourne woman had meanwhile lived with the $ 277 a week Newstart payment, accumulating $ 5,000 credit card debt as she struggled to pay her bills and cover her expenses. medical.
The case was brought before the General Division of the court only because the department appealed after the decision of a lower court to accept Thomson.
"It's a hell," said Thomson, who has appeared in court. "It should not be so hard to get the help we need."
To have access to the disability pension, people must prove that their illness is "fully diagnosed, treated and stabilized" and that they are unable to work at least 15 hours a week.
According to the department, Thomson's shifts often went beyond three hours, which proved that she was "able to maintain her professional activity or other tasks for at least three hours a day."
But the court said that his volunteer and caretaking activities took place at a "benign employer". At the hospital, she watched movies with sick children and comforted infants and other children who could not participate in physical activities.
Thomson told Guardian Australia that the department's arguments were hard to accept because the hospital was "a positive place" for her.
She described her pain as if she had "a warm white poker that pbades through my abdomen".
"My chronic pain is about 24 hours a day, 7 days a week," said the former student in Maternity Nursing. "So, in order for me to go to the hospital, I go to the waiting area where I'm just repelling the pain.
"I like to volunteer because it's a way to give back; it's about helping these other people in a way that I'm good at.
"And since it's all about volunteering, I can say," I'm not up to it this week, "and they agree with that. I will not get fired. "
Until the court verdict, Thomson was among the record number of 200,000 people who are now under Newstart while they are sick or disabled.
Joel Townsend of Victoria Legal Aid, who provided some advice to Thomson, said that her organization was taking more disability pension cases.
"This is, in our opinion, in part because of the fact that quite significant obstacles have been put in the way of people seeking to obtain [the disability support pension]," he said.
The rate of accepted applications has fallen to 30% after the criteria have been tightened by successive governments. Most people do not go to court and the changes have made things particularly difficult for plaintiffs like Thomson who suffer from chronic pain.
"For many people, they are not taken seriously," said Carol Bennett, executive director of Pain Australia.
Bennett stated that the definitions used to badess people for the disability pension did not include "non-specific chronic pain conditions".
"These conditions are not easy to diagnose or treat," she said. "These are very debilitating conditions. When you can not work, it creates a real poverty trap. "
The doctors had suggested that Thomson was suffering from endometriosis, but in her application she relied on a diagnosis of chronic pain.
Darren O'Donovan, an administrative law expert at the University of La Trobe, said he hoped the case would prevent others from "embarking on an unrealistic hunt for diagnosis and treatment before they can get basic support." ".
"The fact that a person with a disability tries to help charities in their community must remain distinct from their ability to maintain work in a commercial environment," he said.
A doctor hired by the ministry to review Thomson's medical records also claimed that her claim for compensation had to be rejected because she had made several trips abroad.
"It seems that it is weakened only in Australia," the doctor wrote in a report quoted by the ministry.
Thomson said it was "really bad that these little things are used against me".
The same doctor stated that she had not yet tried a treatment that, according to Thomson, "would have involved putting me in medical menopause".
"I was 25 years old," she said. "I'd always like to have my own children. So that hurt me emotionally.
The court found that Thomson's chronic pain was "permanent … fully treated, completely stabilized and more likely than otherwise, in the light of available evidence, to persist for more than two years".
In testifying, she stated that "her back and hips hurt so much that I could barely stand on a chair".
She had a panic attack before the hearing and "a very big increase in my pain level" when she went home. "[That] It was not totally unexpected, because stress was one of my main pain triggers, "she said.
"So I did not sleep very well that night. I cried a lot when I went home.
Last month, Thomson learned that the government would no longer appeal.
A department spokeswoman said, "The department can not comment on individual cases."
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