So I'm not eligible for the state govt isolearn courses cos I'm not on job seeker payment and I haven't lost my job due to covid19.

I mean it's so great that they suddenly discovered they can find free education for people needing to be reskilled.....

It would be even better if they extended this to people with disabilities who lost their jobs due to their disability that want to reskill and try to work again.

Cos let me tell you what the Centrelink job rehab program to get onto DSP entailed 5 years ago.....

They made you attend a Disability Employment Service for 18 months.
The first one I went to kept offering me volunteer positions. When I was already volunteering. So They offered me a program working 8 hours a day (at the time I slept minimum hours a work day)....

3 days a week. At a nursery. Potting seedlings. The seeking point was I could still keep my pension (I repeatedly told them I wasn't on DSP yet) and I earned an extra 54c an hour on top.

This folks is what they call subsidised disability employment disguised as slave labour...

When I had a period in a mental health unit and was too unwell for several months to participate they just removed me as a client without notification.

So I asked Centrelink to refer me to someone different. They did.

The next was on the 2nd floor of a building...

I arrived expecting to use the lift. It was out of order. I was not informed when I made the appointment not on the day.

I called them to let them know I could not use the stairs. They offered to do the interview at my car. I declined. Back to centrelink I went...

The next was even more disgraceful. I wasted an hour of my life each fortnight with a woman who told me each meeting there was just no work out there. When I saw an ad for a job I thought I liked I went to her asking her for help answering the selection criteria.....

She told me just to answer the questions they asked. That was the extent of her help.

The following fortnight she asked how I went and I told her I struggled too much with it & didn't apply. She then said "oh that's a shame. I've been shirt listed & have an interview next week"

That's right folks. She applied fornthe job I had brought to her for myself.

She left soon after. Her replacement then deemed me unemployable and 6 months later centrelink approved my application for DSP.

Unemployable. But I've volunteered continuously.

But I lost my job because of a neurological condition I have. Not a virus I didn't get. So the government doesn't consider me eligible for reskilling.

So next time you complain about people like me getting $750 to spend in the places that keep you employed... remember this story