McKeough and Secretary, Department of Social Services (Social services second review)

This matter concerned an appeal by Ms McKeough against the rejection of her claim for a disability support pension. Ms McKeough's claim was based on chronic lower back pain, chronic neck and right shoulder pain, and anxiety and depression. The Secretary of the Department of Social Services had previously rejected the claim, a decision affirmed by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) in a prior review. The current review was before Mr Rob Reitano, Member.

The primary legal issues before the Member were whether Ms McKeough's conditions were fully diagnosed, treated, and stabilised, and whether she had a continuing inability to work. Specifically, the assessment considered whether her chronic pain condition met the legislative requirements and whether her mental health conditions had been diagnosed by an appropriately qualified medical practitioner as stipulated by the relevant tables.

The Member affirmed the decision to reject the claim. The job capacity assessors found Ms McKeough's chronic pain condition to be fully diagnosed, treated, and stabilised, noting that further treatment was unlikely to yield significant functional improvement within two years. However, regarding her anxiety and depression, the assessors noted that her general practitioner was not appropriately qualified to diagnose these conditions according to the requirements of Table 5, which mandated diagnosis by a psychiatrist or a clinical psychologist with evidence from a psychiatrist. The assessors concluded that they were unable to consider the mental health condition without the requisite qualified diagnosis. Furthermore, the Member found that Ms McKeough did not demonstrate a continuing inability to work at the time of her application or by 28 February 2018, based on her stated ability to perform various tasks, albeit with pacing and additional time.