‘Unless you're dying, they're not interested': Brisbane dad with bowel cancer rejected by Centrelink
Nine News
Apr 5, 2018


A young Brisbane dad battling bowel cancer has lashed out at Centrelink after his application for benefits was rejected.

Tristan Hardwick, 33, is one of several cancer patients nine.com.au has spoken to who claim the system has let them down when they most need it.   

Mr Hardwick, who is a father to three-year-old Seth, was diagnosed with stage three bowel cancer in November last year.

Within a week of his diagnosis, Mr Harwick had undergone major surgery to remove his colon, bowel and rectum.

Knowing he would be unable to work during his recovery, Mr Hardwick said he applied to Centrelink for a Sickness Allowance before his operation, with his partner handing in the forms.

Sickness Allowance is a short-term payment offered by Centrelink to help people on low incomes who can’t work because of a medical condition.

Mr Hardwick, had recently started up his own first aid training company which had only just begun making enough money for him to take a wage. But without him working, the company would not be making any money at all, he said.


With his partner earning just $45,000 a year, Mr Hardwick, who is also an SES volunteer, said he expected his family would easily meet Centrelink’s low income criteria.

“The attempt was to get $200 a fortnight, it wasn’t a lot. But it would have just helped with at least car parking for my family to come visit me at the hospital, which costs $25 a day,” Mr Hardwick said.

“Or to put towards rent or childcare payments for the fact that my son is in five days a week at childcare.”

However, Mr Hardwick soon found himself caught up in a bureaucratic nightmare with Centrelink staff losing his papers, twice.   

“They lost the paperwork and then I had to go in because they wanted to speak to me directly, not to my partner, to assess me. So I went there within the first few days of being out of hospital,” he said.

Within a week of his diagnosis, Tristan Harwick had undergone major surgery to remove his colon, bowel and rectum.

Weeks later, Mr Hardwick was told further medical evidence he had submitted online had not been processed properly.

Almost two months after his initial application, Mr Hardwick was last month given the news his application had been rejected because his partner “earned too much”.

A further application for a low income health care card was also rejected for the same reason.

According to the Centrelink website, families earning more than $960 a fortnight are not eligible for the Sickness Allowance. Nine.com.au has contacted the Department of Human Services for comment.

Mr Hardwick said he had also been told by staff that he was “not sick enough”.

“Unless you are dying from it, they are not interested, that’s pretty much what they were saying, which I think is wrong,” he said.   

“I think the system is completely rorted and it’s swayed against people who actually do need proper help. I think unless you play the system you don’t get anywhere with it.”

Mr Hardwick said not being able to get support from Centrelink added to the stress of his recovery.

“You are left wondering where your next dollar is going to come from to pay that bill or to pay for that tank of fuel so that your partner and your child can come and visit you in hospital. That whole support network can be completely dismantled.

“The amount of times me and my partner argued over the stupid Centrelink application system is just ridiculous. We were getting angry at each other over something that we had no control over. And that was all because they just put me through the ringer.”

Mr Hardwick’s story comes just a week after Sydney teen cancer patient Maddison Delaney started up an online petition after her application for a Health Care Card was rejected by Centrelink.   

Ms Delaney’s mother Renee told nine.com.au staff had demanded her immunosuppressed daughter visit Centrelink’s offices in her wheelchair “to sight her” before ultimately rejecting her application.

Anne Nathan, 58, was diagnosed with bowel cancer in 2013.

Another cancer patient, Anne Nathan, 58, was diagnosed with bowel cancer in 2013.

For years the 58-year-old Brisbane mother made do with her Newstart allowance from Centrelink.

But, in 2016, when the struggle to meet her rent, medication costs and travel to hospitals became too much, she applied for a disability pension.

Her application was rejected by Centrelink because she was still undergoing treatment for her bowel cancer. Shocked, Ms Nathan fought the decision, taking the matter all the way to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.

Should have said he was an;
Abbo
Muzzo
Retro
Somali
Or politician

Normal working Australians are not allowed to get anything back from all the money they pay in taxes.

It wouldn't even matter if he was dying, his benefit is means tested against his wife's income. It's that simple and it's the same for the unemployed or pensioners(except politicians on a pension).

We are a two income to survive society but Centrelink is stuck in the past on a one income family.

Grappler Racist Filth wrote on Apr 5^th, 2018 at 11:13pm:


Probably got the spelling from where he got his information. Chances are that there is some kind of dispute behind the story that is not being told.

Quote:





- Joe Hockey

Girl, 17, with leukaemia too old for Centrelink Health Care card   

MADDISON Delaney has been told she is too old and not disabled enough to qualify for a Health Care card, even though she is 17 and suffering from leukaemia. 

news.com.au March 31, 2018



MADDISON Delaney could not believe what she was hearing when she tried multiple times to get a Centrelink Health Care card.   

The 17-year-old Sydneysider was diagnosed with a form of blood cancer in October 2016 at 16 years of age — a disease she still battles with every day.

Despite her having virtually no immune system, she was ordered to visit Centrelink in her wheelchair so staff could inspect her.

And if that wasn’t bad enough, staff gave her a list of reasons why she would not be able to qualify for a Centrelink Health Care card — something which would make her chemotherapy and antibiotics cheaper.


Ms Delaney was wheeled into a Centrelink centre despite having virtually no immune system.

She was told the reason for the rejection was because she was over the age of 16 and under 18 when the cancer was detected.

The teenager was also told that she wouldn’t qualify because she did not have a terminal illness and she wasn’t disabled enough. 

“My oncologist, Clinical Nurse Consultants and social workers have all written letters and referrals, yet Centrelink has still denied my rights to a card,” she wrote on an online petition. “At one point, I had to be taken into a Centrelink centre with virtually no immune system to be sighted, only weeks later finding out we had been rejected again.”   

Thankfully, the Year 12 Northern Beaches student has finished intensive treatment that included eight months of intensive chemotherapy at the Sydney Children’s Hospital in Randwick. But she is still taking oral chemotherapy and antibiotics which is costing her family hundreds of dollars a month.

Her petition to make it easier for cancer patients to access benefits from Centrelink has now collected more than 30,000 signatures. However, she said she doesn’t blame the staff at Centrelink for what happened to her.



“When we are on the phone to Centrelink, the workers are amazing,” she wrote. “They are helpful when trying to find us a successful avenue and upset and regretful when telling us we have been rejected.

“We even have had one worker state they are campaigning for an easier avenue for cancer patients like me internally.”


The teenager was diagnosed with blood cancer in 2016.

She said her family will just have to cop the hefty fees for her treatment and hopes her story will force a rethink of the rules.   

“We have gotten to the point where we have decided to just pay the excess amount instead of spending hours on the phone only to get another excuse,” she said. “Hopefully, this campaign will allow my family and the multiple other cancer patients and their families to have access to a concession card quickly and easily.”



“The department has made contact with Ms Delaney’s family to ensure she is receiving all appropriate support and payments,” he said.

“The department recognises medical conditions can have a significant impact on people’s lives, however, we do not have any discretion to provide payments or concession cards outside the criteria set down in legislation.