Similar treatment for veterans

As the former wife of a Vietnam veteran I was so disappointed, but sadly not surprised, to see the tactics used to reduce or deny NDIS support to people with a disability (Rick Morton, “Brutal scheme”, August 14-20).

This is the same playbook used on our war veterans: first reject the claim, then send the claimant to doctors appointed by the department for review. In our case, the review doctors rejected our doctor’s findings. But our GP challenged the findings and referred my husband to specialists whose tests proved the disabilities claimed were, in fact, correct. Without our GP and the specialists, we would have not known what to do or how to challenge those results. All up, resolution of our claim took some seven or eight years. Similar to the NDIS cases, days before the Administrative Appeals Tribunal was to hear the case, the government accepted our claim 100 per cent and my former husband is now on a TPI pension and a service pension. It was an emotional and financial rollercoaster ride. When we should have been focused on our children and our lives, we were under pressure to prove something that was clear from the medical results. We had the burden of covering the costs of my husband’s medical care for all the years of our claim, as well as there being extended periods when he was not well enough to work or could only work part-time. To see this occurring to people with a disability is beyond “brutal” and it is also unnecessary and costly.

– Faith Hopkins, Camp Hill, Qld