Brain tumour survivor slams Centrelink after support payments cut off mid-recovery

The journey to recovery from a major surgery is a courageous and challenging endeavour.

With each step forward comes a profound sense of resilience and determination, as individuals navigate the physical, emotional, and cognitive effects of their treatment.

Unfortunately for Australians relying on welfare services, hospitalisation doesn't always mean understanding and support from governmental agencies.



Mark (name changed) found himself in a dire situation where his Centrelink payments were halted while he was unable to fulfil his job-seeking obligations due to being in the hospital recuperating from a brain tumour surgery.

His jobseeker payments were suspended by his job agency in April 2023, despite submitting a medical certificate verifying his surgery.

A letter from Services Australia said his payment was ‘stopped from 14 April 2023 because you did not go to, or were late for an appointment arranged by your provider on 13 April 2023’.

There is no rule mandating employment agencies to communicate with their employees before halting their payments.


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While recovering from a brain tumour surgery, Mark’s Centrelink payments were cut off by his job agency in April 2023. Credits: Shutterstock



Despite Mark submitting a medical certificate to Services Australia citing his inability to meet his obligations due to undergoing surgery on 10 April, the payments were still suspended.

‘I ended up in hospital after the operation and then got a text message from [the job provider] saying they’ve cancelled my payments, which was really frustrating,’ Mark said.

The disheartening reality was that the medical certificate took weeks to process, while Mark faced six weeks without financial assistance during his recovery when clarity of thought and communication was impeded.

The suspension placed him in a vulnerable position with no funds to cover the basics such as food or a roof over his head—particularly problematic as he was also grappling with homelessness.

‘Technically, I was in hospital, but I was homeless. I was staying in short-term accommodation,’ he explained.

‘So I thought, “That’s all I need to have that cut off. How am I going to pay rent anywhere? Buy food?” It was just a kick in the guts I didn’t really need at the time.’

‘I had to try then, to call them back, then call the manager, and it just became a drawn-out process,’ he added.



Mark relocated to his sister's residence in regional Victoria to recover from the operation.

With her assistance, he reached out to Services Australia and applied for a medical exemption.

However, he expressed frustration, stating that his benefits should not have been terminated in the first place.

‘I think it’s overreaching,’ he said. ‘[Services Australia] have been given too much authority to cancel people’s payments without proper due diligence.’

He expresses gratitude for the current medical exemption but recalled, ‘it just wasn’t there’ when he needed it initially.



The concerns echoed by ACOSS Chief Executive, Cassandra Goldie, point to an immediate need for reform, saying the number of suspensions was ‘unconscionable’.

‘Each month, more than 80,000 people are threatened with loss of the income support that barely keeps them fed and housed, often due to oppressive automated systems that can make it impossible for people to meet their compliance obligations,’ she said.

Goldie added that the suspension of payments can cause immense mental distress and exacerbate the financial hardship of those already struggling.

‘It is long past time to end this harmful practice,' she declared as she called for the system to show compassion and consider individual circumstances rather than operate on an automatic suspension protocol that can unjustly cut off vital support.



Last year, the parliamentary review conducted on the government's primary employment services program, Workforce Australia, proposed discontinuing automated payment suspensions, and suggested that only officials at Centrelink should be authorised to suspend income support payments.

Tony Burke, Minister of the Department of Employment and Workforce Relations (DEWR), as well as Mark’s job agency, has yet to comment on Mark’s issue.

Last week, a spokesperson of the department said that less than 10 per cent, or 28,283 of suspensions, result in a pause in income and that the median duration is four business days.

When asked about the actions to ensure that all suspensions are valid, a spokesperson said, ‘The department works closely with all providers to ensure that client requirements are appropriate to their individual circumstances.’

‘We monitor [providers’] application of the Targeted Compliance Framework and continually engage with providers on how they are applying payment suspensions and demerits, and take action where it is identified that compliance has been incorrectly applied.’



Aside from this issue, another problem that frustrates Aussies is waiting endlessly on hold in Centrelink lines before they can seek assistance from the government.

However, a savvy social media user recently revealed a trick on how to navigate this problem. You can learn more about it here.

Key Takeaways
  • A jobseeker's Centrelink payments were suspended while he was recovering from brain surgery, despite submitting a medical certificate.
  • The case highlighted issues with automated suspension systems that can unfairly cut off welfare recipients without proper due diligence.
  • The Chief Executive of Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS), Cassandra Goldie, criticised the current regime as oppressive, causing unnecessary stress and poverty among jobseekers.
  • A review recommended ceasing automated payment suspensions and giving the authority to suspend income support payments exclusively to Centrelink officials.

What is your take on Mark’s case? Have you also had problems with your Centrelink payments? Let us know in the comments below.
 
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Like you l have had anxiety & major depression for a life time. I can understand how you felt being thrown in at the deep end. No consideration for you at all & all too common with these Agencies. This is awful for you because you are keen to move ahead but so far the support isn't there. 9 months is a long time waiting for an interview & being given the runaround doesn't help, does it? Perhaps you are in the 'Too hard basket" for them. Is your local Centrelink office within your Township & you could visit with the idea of giving them a shake up. The longer they stall the harder it will be to get a foothold because you are competing against other job seekers wanting retraining.

You have taken big steps to date @ Jen77au given your disposition. I am sure you will succeed in your endeavours, just don't let the System beat you. You have a goal. Strive for GOLD! 🙏
Thank you so much beautiful @Ezzy your words are encouraging for me to not lose hope 🤗
 
Thank you so much beautiful @Ezzy your words are encouraging for me to not lose hope 🤗
Thankyou for your reply, this is wonderful news to hear.

Will you please let me know if you are successful at any time in your future endeavours to get an interview or better into a retraining programme. I would love to hear that you made it.
 
If he was undergoing surgery and recovering in hospital on the 10th how did his "provider" personally make an appointment with him for the 13th?
 
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Centerlink and the "job providers" sound incredibly stupid, inefficient and callous with it. Full stop.

Thank you John Howard and every useless politician, LNP and ALP, that we have elected since him. There are things that government-run agencies do well, or rather did well in the days before "little John" (and no doubt Paul Keating, beginning in 1984) who thoroughly stuffed up Government Services in Australia as did his Thatcherite NZ Labour counterpart in New Zealand, David Lange and his little mate Roger Douglas, his gormless Treasurer in 1985 and thereafter.

Simple; reinstate the government-run CES and put people, not computers, in there. People can sort out peoples' problems quickly, efficiently and humanely; computers can't. It is that simple. The "digital age" has become a self-inflicted curse, from banking to our inevitably essential social services.

I have lived in the UK during the 1945-1979 period when government social services, the NHS and government-funded science institutes and universities, not to mention the Railways, worked very effectively. I began in NZ under Norman Kirk, and even Piggy Muldoon when the same was the case. My British parents died in NZ some 20 years ago, so there is that passed on-family memory as to what works effectively going back to before the Great Depression. And I have lived in Australia since Paul Keating became treasurer, plus other countries as well. I am well able to know what works and what doesn't when it comes to science and social services, including railways and public transport.
 
If he was undergoing surgery and recovering in hospital on the 10th how did his "provider" personally make an appointment with him for the 13th?
Because the "provider" was too stupid to think? Or do you mean "could" make rather than "did" make?
 

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