falling through the cracks

Having been ill for many months, I was able to see centrelink and get a newstart allowance with medical certificate that pays for my medication and psychiatrists visits , my last medical certificate was rejected with no reason given and an appointment made to see a job services provider with my file indicating that I am fit for 30 plus hours a week fulltime work.

While centrelink staff where understanding and saw the mistake and booked me in for a job capacity assessment which is a good thing , the job services provider refused to cancel the appointment or move the appointment until after the assessment even after centrelink rang them and asked them to move the appoinment until more information was known , that left me in an extreme condition of having to attend with the fear of being sent for work I simply could not do.

Fortunatly after meeting an understanding person at the job service provider, she rang centrelink and discused what could be done eventually deciding to leave any further action until after the assessment.

My point in telling this is to explain what should have happened in this situation as told to me by a helpfull person on the centrelink complaints dept.

I should have been flagged as a vulnerable person by centrelink, that allows job service providers to see this

The certificate should not have been "just rejected" but contact made with me to explain that after a certain amount of time/certificates, I need to attend a job capacity assessment, which I am happy to do if it can help me.

My concern is with someone who does not research this mistake, that they will be sent to work in a condition that they are unfit for work, following what is asked of them and not wanting to make a fuss but having this make the condition worse if not tragic.

The commonwealth ommbudsman has a set of guidelines that centrelink agreed to follow when dealing with mental illnes.

it's called falling through the cracks

http://www.ombudsman.gov.au/files/Falling-through-cracks_customers-with-mental-illness.pdf

it explains more of how centrelink is supposed to operate, you may be able to tell centrelink staff about it.

The link is now not working for me, so if you find the same can you let me know and I will see if I can post the PDF somewhere.

Above all try to remain calm if you have to deal with this, as we all know, there is very little tolerence of aggravation even if you are right and your state of mind causes the aggravation

hope it helps someone.