11 year anniversary since the DSP

 

 

Today marks 11 years since I was on the DSP also known in Australia as the Disability Support Pension. I had been on this for a number of years until I started working for my current employer at Coles. This year marks 19 years being employed by them as well. If memory serves I had been on the DSP since I was around 16 / 17 and had forever been told I did not need to work many hours, but I didn't want to be stuck with centrelink payments as it was restrictive and hard to do anything.

My goal had been to earn enough money that I could get off the DSP and that came 11 years ago when I started working 30+ hours for my employer and my income was stripping most of the DSP away when I declared my income once a fortnight. That was pretty much annoying. I wanted to work the max hours I could and by rights being on the DSP meant I couldn't. The government had told me I didn't need a job and could survive on the pension, but that isn't enough money to survive on at all not without support like a job.

There were restrictions within the DSP like not working over a certain amount of hours before money is taken off, reporting your income every fortnight on a Tuesday, They wanted to know about your savings and you could only have a certain amount before they whittle away your pension, There was a set amount of time you could travel overseas for. At the beginning I had to let Centrelink know, but they would be linked with immigration so you didn't have to let them know. Centrelink knew what you had in your bank account even if you never told them what you had in savings.

The day came that I asked for them to take me off centrelink and I was told congratulations by the Centrelink lady. This was in March and I would later get a surprise a while after the end of financial year in June. Turns out being pre-emptive by doing the right thing had consequences. The system got me, it was similar to Robodebt, but it actually wasn't to do with that. If I had stuck around until the end of financial year I might not have been penalised that much, but between March and June they still calculated my income and made me pay back some money. It started off owing $1800 and after a call it ended up being $1400, and that was with going through payslips. Back then they were still physical and had yet to go digital with Coles.

I seen this as an exit fee for Centrelink and even though the humans knew and understood what had happened, the computer system said no. For some reason when the Robodebt scandal hit and went to Supreme court I was an unwitting participant in that as I had a letter that stated a promise that I could have been part of that. At the end of the court cases there was a letter to say I could dispute the outcome as I wasn't eligible, but I could end up with an increase in the debt I owed. I went good luck with that one. I had thought I would get something back, but I don't think I should have been sent the letters either as whoever sent them should have known I wasn't eligible as the government knew.

11 years on and I am happy that I no longer have to deal with the fortnightly hassle of sorting out what my income might be including adding extra money on top, or saying I worked less for more money. The toughest part was picking fruit and having to declare. Do you declare the time spent working in a tree or would it be what you were paid per bin. The bin was close to $20, but the pay rate changed depending on what you picked. I did around 2 bins a day and was consistent. One early stage in the early 2000's all I needed to do was take my payslip into Centrelink and they worked everything out from there. I much prefer when you could do everything online especially when you had to work that day. I don't miss those days at all.