by Nick Manning
Maria is a 40 year old woman from Portugal. She comes into the Community Centre where you work because she is having trouble paying her bills. About 7 years ago her husband was injured at work, and it is unlikely he will be able to work again. Maria and her husband have 6 children aged 6 to 15. During the conversation with Maria you notice that her payments from Centrelink are less than what you would expect. When you ask her, she says that Centrelink overpaid her about $6,000 because they thought she had 7 children, not 6. Maria didn't know that Centrelink was paying her too much. When Centrelink found out they reduced her payment to recover the extra money. So the problem is, Maria is having trouble paying her bills. Can you help?
What help would you offer Maria?
One of the skills of the advocate is seeing the possibilities for advocacy in the first place. Most welfare workers might offer Maria material aid (eg. cash or food vouchers) or refer Maria to a financial counsellor. These are appropriate things to do. An advocate may do more than this, though. An advocate might think like this:
Hmmm, Maria's family must be struggling to put food on the table - they really need help... Maria is getting less money from Centrelink through no fault of her own - that doesn't seem fair... I wonder if Centrelink know that Maria just made a mistake... or maybe it was Centrelink that made a mistake... I wonder what you can do to fix Centrelink problems... Really I think Centrelink should have better safeguards so this sort of thing doesn't happen...and Maria's husband can't work because of an accident at work - I wonder if he is getting the compensation he is entitled to... and I wonder if better rehabilitation or retraining would mean he could work in a different job... and in the mean time, I better organise some immediate help with Maria's bills... and see if financial counselling would help her to plan her family budget.
If we look closely at what our advocate has just thought, we can identify several skills of the advocate:
Hmmm, Maria's family must be struggling to put food on the table - they really need help...
Advocates recognise people in need (so do all good welfare workers).
Maria is getting less money from Centrelink through no fault of her own - that doesn't seem fair...
Advocates see beyond people's needs, to see when those needs have come about through unfairness or injustice.
I wonder if Centrelink know that Maria just made a mistake...
Advocates want to find out how the situation has happened, and how people can let it continue.
or maybe it was Centrelink that made a mistake...
Advocates don't assume that governments and institutions always get things right. (In fact advocates who deal with Centrelink cases know that Centrelink often gets things wrong!)
I wonder what you can do to fix Centrelink problems...
Advocates are not always experts on how to fix things. They often don't know the answers. What they are good at is questions! And of course they often show persistence, even stubbornness, to find out the answers.
Really I think Centrelink should have better safeguards so this sort of thing doesn't happen...
Advocates look beyond the individual's circumstances to recognise systemic problems - problems with whole systems (eg. how Centrelink deal with mistakes). And when the advocate's job role allows, they advocate for change to these whole systems, so as to benefit a whole group of people, not just their client.
and Maria's husband can't work because of an accident at work - I wonder if he is getting the compensation he is entitled to...
More good questions.
and I wonder if better rehabilitation or retraining would mean he could work in a different job...
More good questions. Of course a good advocate will ask Maria and her husband whether or not they actually want assistance with these aspects of their lives. Advocates don't just stick their noses in where they aren't welcome.
and in the mean time, I better organise some immediate help with Maria's bills... and see if financial counselling would help her to plan her family budget.
Good advocates know that advocacy can take months or sometimes years to pay off, if ever, and in the mean time the client has to get through today and tomorrow.
Much good advocacy work comes about after the client approaches the welfare worker for something else. The client doesn't see the possibilities for advocacy. They think that they are stuck with their lot in life. They think that nobody would listen to their side of the story.
The really unfair thing is that sometimes the client is right. That is, the client has already told their story themselves, and nobody listened. But when the advocate tells the client's story, (sometimes) the client wins. In a few cases all the advocate has done is wear smart clothes and spoken good English, and suddenly people in authority start paying attention.
Most of the time the advocate does more than this. Perhaps they know exactly which part of the story to tell, or exactly who to tell it to, or they use writing skills that the client doesn't have.
And sometimes the advocate has to negotiate complex bureaucratic and legal systems which the average person couldn't possibly cope with themselves. But don't let that put you off. The key skills of the welfare advocate are not understanding of particular departments or laws or regulations. In my experience they are:
- a strong sense of justice or fairness
- persistence - they don't give up too soon
- putting their client's interests first - they don't let their personal attitudes get too much in the way.
In other words, you do not need a university degree to be a great advocate!
Notes
Published: 2006
Opinions: are the author's and not necessarily YAPA's.
© Nick Manning 2002. You can:
- quote small amounts of text - acknowledge author, publisher, web address & date
- print out multiple copies of this web page but only if you print the whole web page
No other use permitted without prior consent. Do not put large amounts or all of the text in any other document, including:
- a policy & procedure manual
- a presentation (eg. Powerpoint)
- a training/learning resource book (eg. for TAFE)
- a web page.
Copyright and training enquiries: nmanning@pnc.com.au
