need advice what to do with clink

[jessgray]

well clink rejected our claim for carer's allowance
i am pretty peeved off coz the woman who processed it at the clink office said she could tell cody would get it. i knwo she doesnt decide and stuff. what do i need ot do to appeal their descion ?:banghead: arghghh i feel like we have to jump through hoops just to get anythign done:crying:

[V8]

My DH's was rejected first time too, i know that you can like appeal the decision or something. DH had a medical assessment with the centrelink doctor before they would approve it, and we needed to get another form filled out by an occupational therapist. So first time it was rejected then we got it the second time, they certainly make you jump through hoops till you get anything!

[jessgray]

so frustrating coz we have this sort of stuff happen when we want to get ds1 into programs to help him:gloomy:
MIL just came overand she is shocked that we got rejected coz she got it straight away for BIL and SIL who have ADD:confused:

[Lirael]

what does you DS 'have'?
we got rejected first time too, as the dumbass doctor wrote the wrong date for when DS condition 'started'.

[jessgray]

he has a moderate expressive speech and langauge delay thats what the pead has called it. the speech therapist said she needs to see him a few more times to give a better diagnosis. his hearing problems have been there sinc ebirth but one ear is in normal rnage now according to his results in feb but we have a review end of this month

[MamaRabbit]

We got the Carer Allowance approved first time (and had it backpaid about a year to when we were first diagnosed) but DS is classed as having a disability so there was no reason they could reject it. I suppose with other special needs cases such as hearing and speech, as significant as these issues are, they probably have a heap of people applying of varying scales so they need to assess these cases more closely. It's a bummer when it is happening to you but persevere, you know the daily battle you have. Check out the appeals link on the centrelink website: http://www.centrelink.gov.au/internet/internet.nsf/legal/review_appeal.htm

I called Centrelink yesterday to ask whether we might qualify for the Carer Payment which is income tested. She snapped, "it is only for severe disabilities". I replied with "how do you know my child doesn't have a severe disability?". I then went on to list some of the things that he cannot do on his own and she suddenly warmed to me and was really pleasant offering all sorts of advice and options. Sometimes their manner isn't great but don't give up!

[jessgray]

:thumbsup: thanks

[sam's mum]

Get an appointment with the person who actually made the decision and find out why it was rejected. It may be something that you can rectify fairly easily, it may be that he doesn't qualify for some reason and they can explain it to you. At least then you will have enough information to base your appeal on because you will actually know what you need to change their minds on.

[jessgray]

how do i find out who made the descion

[mellissa1974]

We had a similar prob with centerlink, I phoned the normal number and asked for an appeal to be logged and they also got the person that made the decision to call me and explain why???after I spoke with them their decison was reversed.

[sam's mum]

how do i find out who made the descion

ask. They should be able to tell you who made the decision and then get an appointment with that person.

[matty's mum]

I called Centrelink yesterday to ask whether we might qualify for the Carer Payment which is income tested. She snapped, "it is only for severe disabilities".
What is classed as severe anyone know?

We only get the carer allowance for our son. We were told he didn't have a "severe" enough disability for us to receive "carer Payment"
Our son has Down Syndrome which i know is not severe.
So fine but I would like to know what they class as severe and surly they could find a better term than the one they are using.

[jessgray]

i think centerlink just stuffs too many people round if a person is having a bad day they might decide you arent gunn aget that payment:thumbsdown: :laughing:

[MamaRabbit]

JessGray - I agree c'link are sometimes hard to deal with. Although we all do it tough, unfortunately alot of the time there is someone who is worse off so I suppose with funding like this it really needs to be directed to the right people (if it is fair to judge that). It's a really fine line - mother vs carer. I think it blurs into one alot of the time.

Matty'sMum - I think severe is classed as being reliant upon someone else for close to 100% of the time. It's easy to take for granted that 5 minutes peace you get when you give your child a sandwich to eat. But if your child isn't capable of eating that sandwich on their own day to day life takes on a new dynamic.

I imagine it is a tricky one to assess. C'link staff must cop it from all angles which is probably why they switch off and talk to you like a number. Arrggghhh well I won't delay the inevitable any longer, I'm going to try my luck filling in the Carer Payment forms now and see what kind of response I get. :banghead:

[matty's mum]

of cause I feel so silly to have asked that now

[sam's mum]

I am pretty sure (this is how it used to be anyway) that for one of the tests they compare the level of care required to another child the same age. So a child may be born with a condition that is going to stay the same over time. They may not qualify as a baby because all babies require a high level of care, but they may qualify as they get older because they require a higher level of care than the other kids do.

when I am talking about level of care I mean time, not type.