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Depression Berlin Employment Agency declared hard Depressed for healthy
Depression is still socially taboo as a serious and, above all, potentially fatal disease. Even more fatal for sufferers who depend on state welfare benefits such as Hartz IV. Then the fight against bureaucratic hurdles becomes a fight against windmills. That's what happened to Julia R.- middle in the depressive episode. Because the employment agency in Berlin declared the severely depressed woman healthy!
Hard as lead
The room is dark. An inner deep pain permeates the body. To make it reasonably bearable, Julia R. darkens the rooms. Everything is as heavy as lead, no thought a happy one. Only darkness and exhaustion. Julia just lies in the room. Without a book, without a TV, without a radio, without everything. Only her dog gives structure and calls for a walk. The therapist had advised.
(Image: pololia / fotolia.com) When Julia gets involved with the employment agency, she throws her completely off track. Julia is an accountant and was employed by the Ministry. After that she changed to a transport company. The colleagues appreciate the reliability, loyalty and the extraordinary helpfulness. If there was something to tackle, get her nuts. There was no discussion.
Two years ago, the doctor declared Julia unfit for work. Until then she had never heard of the disease. Julia could not get up from one day to the next. At home the plants died, dust gathered under the furniture and the guitar was no longer played. The diagnosis was suddenly "clinically severe depression".
She spent 16 weeks in the hospital now. Countless hours of therapy, daily structure, group discussions. Presumably, the death of a close friend was the trigger. Then the mother, the brother, the strain in the company got bigger. Maybe there is also a genetic affinity. But the therapies did not help much. The depressions had manifested. Too long. The claim to sickness benefit lasted for 78 weeks. And then?
Reviewer: Kerngesund!
The health insurance says that she should now apply for unemployment benefits. But that was the beginning of the worries. On the part of the authority, Julia is sent to an appraiser. He is a specialist in surgery and social medicine, examines her spine, joints, reflexes and then explains to the patient: "I understand nothing about mental matters." She is healthy and can allegedly work more than 6 hours a day. Only her previous work could not be completed. But which then?
The employment agency does not know that either. Instead, the current sick leave of the treating psychiatrist is ignored. She should provide her remaining power, it is terse. The reviewer had written: full time, immediately and completely!
But that is impossible for Julia. She tells the employment agency employee; "I can not do that!" The companion of Julia asks why no psychological report is required. Then the short answer: "Because we already have a report."
The Employment Agency then stops the services completely. The customers, as the new German authorities say, are no longer available to the labor market. The correct advice should have been to apply for a temporary disability pension. Instead, the Employment Agency sends Julia to the job center. There she is to apply for Hartz IV. Although Julia is still no longer available to the labor market, she now receives much less social benefits. And the employment agency is the "case" go once.
Julia used to take on applications for friends and relatives. Today, she barely manages to panic. Today, without help, Julia can hardly make any phone calls or completing applications. Obviously, this is also known in the job center, which is why the tone of the note is much rougher: "Your fortune of 24,175.28 exceeds the free allowance by 8550 euros. They are therefore not in need of assistance and have no claims. Note: You must use your assets to secure your livelihood! "Not that Julia buys something nice.
Spend all the savings
But she is not able to do that. Since September 2016, Julia now pays her entire living from her last savings. Even the health insurance wants 169 euros extra. The pension contributions leaves them away. She does not go for it, saves herself good food, lives secluded. Because the account continues to melt, panic breaks out already: "If I have to go to the hospital now, that costs 280 Euro additional payment. The rent continues. That's not enough. "More and more friends are turning away. But there were also former colleagues who helped her to defend herself against the authorities. The DGB legal protection is switched on. This sued now before the social court. But it can take to the process. Not seldom up to 2 years. And till then?
Because the authorities do not recognize the serious illness, Julia loses herself in the Hartz mills. A system that makes surgeons' reports when the applicants suffer from a mental illness.
At the request of the Berliner Zeitung, the employment agency says that the woman is healthy for the authority. "For us, the woman is healthy. We follow the testiman's testimony. "A surgeon, not a psychiatrist. But that does not interest the authority. "He is not only a surgeon, but a consultant, social doctor of our medical service. We did not send the woman to the dentist. When I bring a car to the TÜV, there is no distinction between small cars and trucks. After the TÜV, I have to rely on the fact that the car drives. "But: The reviewer himself had admitted that he is not responsible for mental illness.
The position of the authority is that the opinion could have been questioned in terms of content. But it did not. Although contradiction was not possible, but content corrections already. But you also have to know these subtleties. Why was it not mentioned? "That's not our job. We can not question every report. " Normally, the so-called "seamlessness rule" applies, section 145 SGB II. Then, the person affected must pay unemployment benefits until the disability pension is decided. But that was denied. Instead, these unspeakable reviews were created.
Authority arbitrariness is not an isolated case
"The fact that sick people get into situations in which the illness comes to the bare existence anxiety by the action of offices, is unfortunately not an isolated case. In my experience, editors of social insurers are usually completely uncritical about accepting assessments from doctors or psychologists, even if they are not plausible at first glance. This often has blatant consequences, "says lawyer Elisabeth Hlawenka, who for the Landesvereinigung self-help Berlin e.V. against the Berliner Zeitung.
Julia R is now being summoned regularly by the job center. Letters are always coming in, calling for immediate job search. For this evidence should be provided. Male is then threatened that otherwise the services will be discontinued. What achievements Julia asks herself! Because she should use up all the money, that she had saved herself over the years.
In this terror, one may wonder if the Job Center and the Employment Agency consider depression as a kind of "infectious disease". "I just want to be treated as a human," says Julia. Not more.