Sex Abuse Victims Request Disability Pension

ABC
November 8, 2013

http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2013/s3887340.htm

PETER LLOYD: In Victoria, a group of people who have been sexually abused are asking to be put on the same disability pension as returned soldiers.

The idea is coming from Ballarat, a city with a dark past of child sexual abuse by members of the Catholic clergy.

Kate Stowell reports from the central Victorian city.

KATE STOWELL: Abuse survivor Andrew Collins represents a group of more than 80 people from the Ballarat area.

During the course of the Victorian Parliamentary Inquiry into institutional child sexual abuse and the Royal Commission, he's become a spokesman for the local community of abuse survivors.

He says a lot of people aren't coping.

ANDREW COLLINS: There was one survivor that we knew of who would struggle every month, did he get his medication? Did he have his mobile phone? He was suicidal so he needed his mobile phone to talk to people and you know keep in touch with the world but he also needed his medication.

He'd exhausted his so many 'free sessions' under the mental health plan very quickly and was just living in limbo.

KATE STOWELL: When the Royal Commission into child sexual abuse was set up, the Federal government committed $45 million to support services including counselling and free legal advice.

But Mr Collins says survivors suffering post-traumatic stress and depression find it difficult to work and need extra financial and medical help.

He says the support needs to look to the long term, and he's suggesting that victims are granted access to the existing disability pension that's available to returned soldiers

ANDREW COLLINS: When we started looking and talking to other people we noticed that the Department of Veteran Affairs disability program offered a better weekly rate of pay and access to better medical services. We also looked at the fact that those returned soldiers had post-traumatic stress disorder and the symptoms were basically exactly the same as what we were looking at.

KATE STOWELL: The idea that abuse survivors get the same benefits as returned soldiers is getting some high-level attention.

Two Ballarat survivors met with the Social Services Minister Kevin Andrews today to discuss the idea.

Andrew Collins says just being heard is a good start.

ANDREW COLLINS: It is, it is. So far it shows that you know, we're being listened to, and that's always a positive step because it’s one thing to have a voice but you only have that voice when someone listens.

KATE STOWELL: One support service that's facing high demand is Relationships Australia - its counselling service was granted money from the Federal Government specifically for the Royal Commission.

Spokeswoman Nikki Hartman says she's heard similar calls for increased pensions for abuse survivors.

NIKKI HARTMAN: We do hear that a lot and we certainly hear that a lot who might need some very significant ongoing mental health care support and that has an effect on their physical health and so sometimes because of financial restrictions, they are really limited into their quality of life if so much of their money is going into health management.

KATE STOWELL: Under the returned soldiers' disability pension, some abuse survivors could receive up to $600 a week, depending on their personal and employment circumstances.

Andrew Collins says people need help now, and they can't afford to wait the months or years it may take for the Royal Commission to make its recommendations.

ANDREW COLLINS: We think that this interim period before the Royal Commission can make their findings and their findings are put in place, is a crucial one, especially for survivors and their families.

It's very stressful, it drags up a lot of the past constantly and you know people with post-traumatic stress disorder and depression - it's very hard, it's going to be hard to get through this time and we just need whatever help the Government can put into place.

PETER LLOYD: That's abuse survivor Andrew Collins, Kate Stowell was our reporter.