Gemma* was working at a popular fast-food restaurant when she slipped and hurt herself on some wet stairs that had not been properly marked.
She already had a bad back and as time went on, her injury and pain sometimes left her unable to get out of bed. When she couldn't work, she also developed depression and anxiety.
Because the incident wasn't reported at the time, and she couldn't claim compensation, Gemma went onto the Newstart unemployment payment. She saw a "huge drop" in her finances, particularly as she tried to keep up with her medical needs.
From the time she stopped working, it took her about three years of applying to Centrelink and talking to employment agencies to switch to the disability support pension, which provides a higher payment and doesn't have the same job search requirements.
"I was in dire straits," she says. "I call it my dark time."
Gemma has been on the disability support pension, which she says has given her more peace of mind, for a year now. Bu there is not "much room for error" with her bills, and she often has to rely on the St Vincent de Paul Society for food vouchers.
Her story is one of more than 70 that the St Vincent de Paul Society National Council has collected for a report, released on Wednesday, on Australians living in poverty.
With estimates that 2.5 million Australians, including 600,000 children, live below the poverty line, the Sick with Worry report finds there are three main challenges facing the group: inadequate housing; low income; and health and disability.
"For some people ... just getting the government to properly acknowledge [their] disability is nearly impossible," it says.
"This is despite the fact that rates of Centrelink fraud are minuscule [with about 0.04 per cent of recipients convinced of fraud per year] ."
St Vincent's national chief executive John Falzon said that while his organisation, and others like it, would always "be there" for people, Australians like Gemma should not have to depend on them for things like food.
"It's just so sad to see a wealthy country like ours using charity as the default mode of delivering social security."
While he was critical of recent "cruel" moves by the Coalition government to make young people wait for dole payments, Dr Falzon said political attitudes towards people who needed welfare had changed for the worse in Australia over the past 20 years.
"It has become completely stigmatised and something that is treated with disdain by our political elders," he said.
He said there was a misconception that welfare caused unemployment.
"People are living in poverty because, while they are outside the labour market, they are generally on a severely inadequate level of income support payment that keeps them below the poverty line."
Community and welfare groups have long been calling for Newstart payments, which are currently $523.40 for a single person per fortnight, to be boosted by $50 a week.
The basic rate for a single person over 21 on the disability support pension is $788.40 a fortnight.
Sick with Worry recommends that income payments are properly indexed, that the government engages business and the community to form a national jobs plan and a "comprehensive" plan is made to address housing affordability.
*Name has been changed
