Amid debate around the low rate of Newstart, for those nearing pension age, a collision of policy adjustments is taking its toll

'Really upset': welfare changes forced woman to volunteer as husband was dying

Marie Jentner’s husband was dying when Centrelink gave her some more bad news: she was now a jobseeker.

At 62, she had quit her job of 27 years to care for Siegfried, who had testicular cancer and couldn’t walk or look after himself. When he was moved into palliative care the following year, Jentner’s carer’s payment was cancelled and she was put on the lower Newstart allowance.

“I retired in 2017 to stay home and look after my husband,” Jentner, 64, tells Guardian Australia. “I’ve worked nearly 45 years of my life, and there’s no way I wanted to go back to work. And they said, ‘Well, you need to do something because the government has changed things. You need to be on Newstart. You could do either community work or volunteering.’”

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Jentner is among the fastest growing cohort of people on Newstart – those aged between 55 and 64. They are on Newstart for three and a half years on average.

Amid debate around the low rate of Newstart, for those new “jobseekers” who are nearing pension age, a collision of other policy changes are starting to bite. Rudd government reforms mean Jentner will have to wait until she is 66 – an increase of six months from July – to access the age pension, which is nearly $200 per week more than Newstart.

Nearly 12 months ago, the Coalition government’s welfare reforms introduced new “mutual obligations” for Newstart recipients over 60. They can volunteer or work 15 hours a week to keep getting an income or face standard job search requirements, but if they’re on Newstart for longer than a year, they now face a new annual activity requirement.

Jentner was not sure when she would lose Siegfried, her husband of 42 years. She felt she had no choice but to meet her “mutual obligations” at the nursing home in the Adelaide suburb of Rosewater, where he was dying.

“The lady said, ‘You realise then, that while your husband is here, you can’t sit with him – you need to go, you know, to the other residents, and chat with them.’

“He was really upset because he wanted me to stay with him and I was really angry because I didn’t know when he was going to die on me.

“Even though he was in the nursing home, while I was with other patients, I thought, ‘Well, during my lunchbreak while they are having their dinner, I’m going to sit with my husband for 45 minutes.’”

In November, two months after Jentner was forced to start volunteering, Siegfried died. As she grieved, Jentner also informed Centrelink of his passing.

Under Department of Human Services policy, people who are eligible for a widow allowance – as Jentner was – are not required to meet any mutual obligations.

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But she said no one told her. She kept volunteering at the nursing home in the belief she was required to if she wanted to keep her payments.

She was also forced to pay back $684.10 after Centrelink said she had been overpaid the carer’s allowance.

Either way, Jentner’s social worker believes that, given Siegfried’s declining health, Jentner should have been given special consideration and exempted from her mutual obligations.

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In February, Centrelink rectified the situation and she has now been exempted from her mutual obligations.

But Jentner says the whole ordeal took its toll. She says the agency did not apologise.

“They just said, ‘Sorry for your loss.’ Why did they put me through this stress? You know, I just don’t understand.”

In the nursing room, as she fulfilled her mutual obligations, Jentner says she was constantly worried about her husband.

“A few times, apparently, he got out of bed, even though he couldn’t,” she says. “He struggled. They found him wandering around. They needed to put him back to bed. You see he wanted to be here at home.”

Hank Jongen, Department of Human Services spokesman, declines to comment on whether Jentner’s case has been handled properly by Centrelink.

“I’m so sorry to hear of Ms Jentner’s loss and we extend our deepest sympathy to her,” he says.

“We understand supporting someone through illness and the loss of a partner are very difficult times.

“Due to privacy, we are unable to provide comment about people’s specific circumstances, however we can advise that we will continue to work closely with Ms Jentner to ensure she is fully supported during this tough time.”