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

This matter concerned an appeal by Ms Struz against a decision by the Secretary of the Department of Social Services regarding her eligibility for a disability support pension. The core of the dispute revolved around whether Ms Struz met the criteria for the pension, specifically concerning the severity and stability of her medical conditions. The case was heard by D K Grigg M.

The legal issues before the court were whether Ms Struz's medical conditions were fully diagnosed, fully treated, and fully stabilised, and whether these impairments attracted an impairment rating of 20 or more points under the relevant Impairment Tables. The court was also required to consider whether Ms Struz had a continuing inability to work.

The court's reasoning focused on the requirements for assessing impairment ratings under the Social Security (Impairment Assessment) Determination. It was established that an impairment rating could only be assigned if the condition causing the impairment was permanent, meaning it had been fully diagnosed, fully treated, and fully stabilised, and was likely to persist for more than two years. The court considered evidence of corroboration, treatment undertaken, and planned treatment, as well as the definition of a fully stabilised condition, which included scenarios where further treatment was unlikely to yield significant functional improvement or where no reasonable treatment was undertaken due to medical reasons or lack of expected improvement. The Respondent accepted that Ms Struz suffered from several impairments, including diabetes, anxiety and depression, schizophrenia, Wilson's Disease, and osteoarthritis, and that the requirement for impairments for the purposes of section 94(1)(a) of the Act had been met. The decision under review was set aside.