Right that sorts that then...I'm glad you got higher birdcrazy.

Over here in Oz Wildfower it is all the same. If you are assessed as disabled you are placed onto the DSP which is the disability support pension which is higher than the unemployment support. Also while on disability one doesn't have to search for work but on unemployment support one must, and must prove they have been looking by getting signatures from prospective employers.

Also if accepted as disabled you are entitled to a full time carer who is paid by the government to care for you and support you. In my case it is my partner who had to give up work to look after me, take me to medical appointments, do shopping, etc.

Disability pensioners also get free car registration (although we must pay insurance but we still save $hundreds per year), free medical, hospital & medical specialist care, and free dental care, free physiotherapy, free psychiatry services etc. We have rental support and a very heavily subsidised electricity supply, our bill is about $57 in summer and $87 in winter per quarter but we don't watch tv until 6pm at night, no microwave oven or other devices that drain a lot of power (Morgana refuses to eat food cooked in a microwave, she claims it causes the march of blood, which to her is cancer), and I must admit that since we listened to her and gave ours away, our food tastes so much better.

Though for all the free care we have insurance to ensure prompt treatment and the drs of our choice; we also think that we are blessed to receive so much so the least we can do is pay our way with heavy medical expenses by being insured. Gave up smoking and put the money to insurance, best thing we ever did, so our medical and dental are paid by insurance not the taxpayer. We have both worked over 30 years non stop and were in higher tax brackets. The saddest thing is that our savings have been eaten away over the years by the cost of living. But by budgeting and spending less we have been able to save a little per fortnight to ensure we have a cushion to land on if we need it...

Thanks for being interested