Lucy Timu learned she had been placed on the compulsory employment scheme when she was five months’ pregnant
A Sydney woman who says she was hospitalised with severe morning
sickness multiple times during her pregnancy remains locked in a battle
to be excluded from the government’s ParentsNext program.
Lucy Timu, who only gave birth last month, first learned she had been placed on the compulsory pre-employment scheme when her payments were suspended in October. She was five months’ pregnant at the time.
The Department of Jobs and Small Business promised to update its policies after it was alerted by the Guardian of Timu’s case. But she said that, as of Wednesday, her six-month fight with Centrelink to obtain an exemption from the program remained unresolved.
“It just makes everything feel so much harder,” said Timu, who has two other children, aged five and 11. “Just seeing those messages come through, it has a physical manifestation. I feel sick and I can’t help but worry and worry.”
Lucy Timu, who only gave birth last month, first learned she had been placed on the compulsory pre-employment scheme when her payments were suspended in October. She was five months’ pregnant at the time.
The Department of Jobs and Small Business promised to update its policies after it was alerted by the Guardian of Timu’s case. But she said that, as of Wednesday, her six-month fight with Centrelink to obtain an exemption from the program remained unresolved.
“It just makes everything feel so much harder,” said Timu, who has two other children, aged five and 11. “Just seeing those messages come through, it has a physical manifestation. I feel sick and I can’t help but worry and worry.”
Currently the subject of a Senate inquiry, ParentsNext is a compulsory pre-employment program for about 73,000 people who receive parenting payment. They must have children between the age of six months and five and be classified as “disadvantaged” by Centrelink.
As Timu has found out, the process to be spared from the program’s “mutual obligations” is not always easy.
The Guardian has previously reported the case of one woman who said she was re-traumatised when she was asked to retell her history as a domestic violence survivor to her provider in front of her child. Another woman has said she was required to attend a ParentsNext appointment 90 minutes’ drive from her house to get an exemption.
From about four weeks into her pregnancy Timu said she had “started throwing up and it just got worse and worse and worse”, describing it as “like something out of The Exorcist”.
She said she was diagnosed with a condition called hyperemesis gravidarum, a type of severe morning sickness characterised by nausea and vomiting.
“Sometimes it got to the point where I was throwing up 15 times a day,” Timu said. “I was hospitalised on several occasions on days where I had to be given bags of IV fluid.
“My daughter used to cry and get scared because it was that bad. There were days when I couldn’t get out of bed, there were certainly no days where I was OK.”
Timu said she had also lodged an application for the disability support pension due to complex PTSD and anxiety disorder.
On 7 November, Centrelink said her request for an exemption had been rejected.
Thirteen days later, she said she received another temporary payment suspension for “failing to report her income”.
In February, four days after giving birth, Timu received a letter stating she would need to attend an appointment with a ParentsNext provider to avoid having her payments suspended.
When she went to a Centrelink office to apply for an exemption with her baby in tow, Timu said she was told that “unless you have a current medical certificate to submit today, you’re going to have to go to one of these (ParentsNext) appointments”.
“And then I just started crying and thought, ‘This is getting me nowhere’,” she said. “That’s when I said, ‘What about the newborn, doesn’t that entitle you to an exemption?’”
Timu said she confirmed a newborn baby qualified her for an exemption. Yet last week, she said she received another text message from Centrelink again asking her to attend a ParentsNext appointment on 20 March.
A spokeswoman for the Department of Jobs and Small Business said she could not publicly comment on an individual’s circumstances.
“However, noting the circumstances raised in this case, exemptions policy is being updated to ensure that an exemption may be granted by DHS prior to a parent being referred to ParentsNext, where the parent is experiencing pregnancy-related complications,” she said.
The Department of Human Services, which oversees Centrelink, referred questions to Jobs and Small Business.
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