Disability pensioner Michael Kenny of Hurstville is sick of his fellow pensioners being portrayed in a bad light.
Mr Kenny, 62, has been on a disability pension all his life and saved the deposit on his Hurstville flat from money he earned working in disability assistance industries.
Vocal and politically involved, Mr Kenny defended the image of disability pensioners when he spoke from the floor at the Health and Hospitals Forum hosted by Barton MP Linda Burney and Shadow Minister for Health and Medicare Catherine King at Club Central Hurstville, last Monday.
“The honest pensioners keep getting it in the neck,” Mr Kenny said.
“There’s too much putting down of honest pensioners in the media. The government should tell both sides of the story.”
Mr Kenny gave up full-time work in 2007 and is now a carer for his wife Robyn, who is in a Hurstville aged care home.
“I’ve been on a disability pension all my life,” he said.
“I saved the $10,000 for the deposit of my a flat in 1979 and paid it off while working in a sheltered workshop.
“I started saving when I was living with my parents at Kogarah. I paid $20 a week to my parents, put aside $60 for living expenses and put $200 a week from my pension in the bank.
“The Department of Social Security (now Centrelink) sent a letter to the workshop saying my pension would be reduced because I had $10,000 in the bank.
“I asked them to give me a month and I would buy my own place, which I bought in February 1979.
“I worked at Access Assisted Industries and met my wife, Robyn there in December 1977. I bought my flat in February 1979 and we married in December 1979. I paid off the flat by 1988.
“I worked at the South Haven Activity Centre working as a general hand cutting plastics.
“Then I worked at Amaroo Industries at Redfern as a general hand.
“I had a nervous and physical breakdown in 1989 when I was working at St George Hospital as a cleaner.
“My mum and Robyn’s mum died three weeks apart and Robyn also had a nervous breakdown.
“We kept on trying to work but in 2007 we were put off because I was her full-time carer. Now she is a nursing home at Hurstville.
“I started volunteering at St George Community Services, now 3Bridges,.
“We are both on the disability pension.
“We just made a go of making a living. Now I look after my wife.
“I am sick of reading in the media about welfare fraud.
“They should show the other side, and talk about the people who working and doing the right thing.
“The government and media should have a go at the ones who commit fraud, but don’t have a go at everybody who is on the pension.
“Be fair on people. Just because someone commits fraud it doesn’t mean that everybody receiving a pension is doing it. Make it easier on those that do the right thing.
“The pension should be fairer for people who are pulling their weight - for them the pension should go up a bit. For those not pulling their weight the government should make them do voluntary work or community work.”
