Hello

I appreciated your article. I am 32 and have a disability and live with my partner. I am unsure if you are aware of this, but at no point in my life that I will be entitled to a scrap of financial dignity. There is no age where I will be considered entitled to any sum from Centrelink. I will always be considered my partners dependent for Centrelink purposes (and consequently, his complete dependent financially). I buy his birthday presents out of his money. I buy my tampons and chocolate and socks out of his money. He pays for my medical costs- I am not even eligible for a health care card. If I lived with my parents right now, I would receive a disability pension. Because I live with my partner (who is also my carer)- I recieve nothing. It’s bleak for all of us out there, but the bleakness experianced by being completely and utterly supported by a non-relative financially, medically, physically, emotionally- is heavy too.