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Centrelink
It took me two tries to get on the “disability support pension” whilst I am only eligible to get a payment of around $60.00 per week as my wife works, it was another massive hurdle to overcome. Once again it was a doctor that caused the trouble the first Centrelink doctor I saw was an immigrant from India who suggested because I only suffered from back pain that I would have no trouble working as a salesman.
For anyone that hasn't worked as a salesman this would mean standing most of the day, sitting for part of it and lifting goods. Obviously as you have read I have severe pain which becomes worse after sitting or standing for as little as 10 minutes.
I went through the complaints system and thankfully the next centrelink doctor approved me for the pension.
Its now 2007 and I would like to be able to work for myself for one to two hours per week, but due to the GST system I can not do that without registering a company. However under the current system that could mean I would have to go off the disability pension. If I do that and can not make the $60.00 per week or my condition worsens so that I can not do any work, I would have to reapply for the pension and after that process, if I was approved again, under the new Howard government disability pension rules I would have to work fifteen hours per week which I am obviously not capable of.
Chairs, etc.
I strongly recommend “zero gravity” chairs they are available in fold up portable types from places like Kmart or Mitre 10 for between $60.00 and $100.00, or lounge chair types with massagers from $400.00 to $5000.00.
I do not recommend responding to mail out leaflets looking for arthritis sufferers etc. as I once did this and a company from Adelaide sent a sales representative to my home and he was a very ignorant and pushy person, I asked for a brochure or demonstration and he refused and stated he wanted to see my financial records to see if I could afford to buy their products. At the time we were living in our first house which was a low cost house but he made it very obvious he thought I was a bludger and didn't want to waste his time demonstrating something he thought I couldn't afford. I told him to leave and he stated I obviously didn’t want to get better. I later found out this company sold massage chairs for around $7000.00, so I would strongly recommend dealing with furniture or electrical company’s instead.
I also recommend installing massage pads on car seats which are available from electrical outlets or car auto part resellers.
Insurance
I was amazed at the under hand tactics the insurance company used, sending me to doctors that would obviously understate any injury.
I was amazed at the reports from the insurance doctors, if someone read them without seeing me they would think I was a lazy un-motivated person who was basically fit with 10 to 15 percent loss of use of my back or with a perfectly fit back but physiological problems (mental problems) which could be cured by sending me to a psychiatrist.
In fact every report I received from the insurance company doctors all suggested my pain was not real and that it was all in my head or “non-organic” in their words.
Some of the reports suggested my back pain was caused by disc degeneration and therefore that the pain was not caused by the accident but was from an existing condition.
I suspect there motivation is to make it as hard as possible for the claimant so that they will give up or commit suicide.
At present politicians only look at the total cost of insurance, there is no supervision of how the insurance company deals with the injured person. Nor is there any method of dealing with complaints about insurance companies.
In my case I was treated like a criminal by the insurance company and their doctors, I received the equivalent of 5 years wages even though if I was not injured I could have worked for another 40 years. But because of the way the current system works I had no choice but to accept their offer.
Statistics
My accident was reported in the paper as a minor crash with no serious injuries.
That I know of there are no records kept of injuries in car accidents except for insurance company records.
There could be thousands of people who have suffered injuries like mine that were reported as minor or non serious. We must start taking proper records of people injured in car crashes and whether they recovered or not.
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