Introduction to Welfare Law

BACHELOR OF COMMUNITY SERVICES
Assessment 1 (Trimester 3-2022)
SAP103 Introduction to Welfare Law
Instructions to Students:
1. Address the questions listed below.
2. This is an open-book assessment.
3. In your answer include only the content covered in lectures, the textbook and
required readings. Include referencing for any textbook, required reading and
lecture content cited in your answer.
4. The assessment duration is 7 days.
5. This assessment is worth 25% of the overall grade for this unit. The assessment
mark will be reported as a percentage of the assessment weight.
6. Write no more than 1400 words in total. Please include in your file for submission
only the question numbers and your answers to the questions.
7. Submit your answer file for assessment via Turnitin. Include a cover sheet.
8. Submit your answer online by Friday 21 October at 11.55pm.
9. The Assessment 1 link will be made available from 7:00pm (EST) on Friday 14
October.
10. There are three case studies to complete for this assessment:
Case Study A 10 Marks

Case Study B
10 Marks

Case Study C
10 Marks
_______________
TOTAL: 30 marks

Read the Case Study information
and instructions carefully for each question.
2
Case study A.
Samantha is three months pregnant. She separated from her husband a week before she
attended her appointment with the prenatal health nurse at her local community health
service. During her interview with the nurse Samantha disclosed that her separation had
occurred following a family violence incident with the baby’s father and the police had
attended.
With Samantha’s consent, the nurse referred Samantha to the community services worker
located at the health service. The nurse also arranged for the lawyer based at the health
service to speak with Samantha immediately.
During Samantha’s meeting with the community services worker and the lawyer, both
workers discussed with Samantha her options should the family violence continue.
Samantha was informed by the lawyer about her option to apply for a court order to protect
her from experiencing any further family violence. The community service worker helped
Samantha to put together a family violence safety plan and discussed emergency housing
options.
In your answer to Questions 1, 2 and 3 below please refer to the required readings from
Week 1 and Week 2, namely:
Reading 1 (Week 1 in Moodle): Kennedy, R., Richards, J., & Leiman, T. (2016). Law
and human services: together and apart. In R, Kennedy, J. Richards, & T. Leiman
(Eds.), Integrating Human Service Law, Ethics and Practice (4th ed., pp. 19-42). Oxford
University Press Australia.
Reading 2 (Week 2 in Moodle): Forell, S and Nagy, M. (2021). Health justice insights:
health justice partnership as a response to domestic and family violence, Health
Justice Australia Inc, Sydney.
Q 1. What is Integration, and why integrate health, human and legal service provision? (3
marks)
Q 2. Discuss the benefits to Samantha of attending an integrated health service compared
to Samantha accessing each of the three service types (i.e., the health, community, and
legal services) at separate locations and on different days? (4 Marks)
Q 3. Identify and describe three tensions that can challenge human service workers when
they work with lawyers? (3 marks)
3
Case study B.
John is a community services worker. He works as an assessment officer with Centrelink. It is
John’s job to help clients complete their application for a disability support pension and to
process the completed application for approval.
Ben is John’s client. Ben is a 35-year-old man with motor neuron disease. The physical
impairments Ben experiences are getting significantly worse. When he met with John he
was in a wheelchair and unable to hold the pen to sign his name on the application form or
open the door to exit John’s office.
At the time of Ben’s appointment with John, Ben’s long-term partner and full-time carer
Trevor was waiting for him outside the office to take Ben home. John feels uncomfortable
talking with Ben about his partner Trevor, so he asked Trevor to wait outside in the car park
until he finished speaking with Ben. John doesn’t think it’s right for two men to be in a
marriage like relationship together.
It is John’s job to decide whether Ben meets the criteria to access the disability support
pension. There is an age criterion, a residency criterion, and a disability criterion. At 35 years
of age Ben meets the age criterion. Ben is an Australian Citizen who resides in Australia. Ben
provided John with his birth certificate and a certified copy of his passport as evidence of his
Australian citizenship. Ben also provided John with a copy of his medical assessment that
was conducted 1 year ago when he was first diagnosed with Motor Neuron Disease. At the
time he was first diagnosed Ben was still working as a high school teacher and coaching the
school soccer team.
The disability criterion is difficult for John to apply when assessing Ben’s application given
the old medical assessment that Ben has provided. If John relies on the old medical
assessment, he will reject Ben’s application. John can see from his interview with Ben that
he would clearly meet the disability criterion because Ben now has very limited functional
capacity.
John finds that he has a dilemma in making his decision. He can’t decide whether to approve
or reject Ben’s application for the disability support pension.
Q 4. Identify two principles of administrative law that John should apply in making his
decision to grant or reject Ben’s application for the disability support pension. Describe
what John needs to do to apply each of these two rules in making his decision. (4 marks)
Q 5. Refer to the Australian Association of Social Workers Code of Ethics (2020), Section 3
on Ethical Decision Making.
Describe two principles of ethical decision making that John could apply to help him in
making his decision, and comment on any similarities between the ethical principles and
the principles of administrative law you have identified above at Q 4. (4 marks)
Q 6. If Ben’s application for a disability support pension is rejected by John, describe
where Ben could go to have this decision reviewed? (2 marks)
4
Case study C.
Jackie is scheduled to appear before a state based administrative tribunal to challenge a
maintenance claim made against her by the government office for public housing. Jackie has
been asked to pay her local housing office $10,000 to cover the cost of re-painting and
repairing the holes in the door and the walls of her the public housing apartment.
Bill is a community service worker employed by a government run social service
organisation. He is assisting Jackie with employment and other welfare matters. Jackie
discloses to Bill that her then boyfriend punched holes in the walls and doors of the
apartment when he visited her, and he threatened to kill her with a gun.
Jackie is not liable to pay for the damage to the apartment because the damage was caused
by her ex-boyfriend. But Jackie doesn’t want to tell the Tribunal that her ex-boyfriend
caused the damage to the door and the walls. She has no money of her own to pay for the
damage.
Jackie asks Bill to come with her to the upcoming tribunal hearing as her support person. She
believes that her ex-boyfriend will try and kill her if she tells anyone who caused the damage
to the apartment. He has threatened to do so in a recent text message sent to Jackie.
Bill is very concerned that Jackie will admit to having caused the damage to the apartment
because she is afraid of what her ex-boyfriend will do if she discloses the family violence.
Bill is also very concerned about Jackie’s safety and believes that the threat to kill made by
her ex-boyfriend will be carried out.
Q 7. Describe the process Bill would need to follow to obtain Jackie’s informed consent for
him to disclose her experience of family violence and third-party damage to the tribunal
and to the police? (4 marks)
Q 8. What is Bill’s ethical obligation in relation to keeping Jackie’s personal information
private? Refer to section 5.4.1 and section 5.4.2 of the Australian Association of Social
Workers Code of Ethics (2020) (3 marks).
Q9. What is Bill’s legal obligation in relation to keeping Jackie’s personal information
private? Refer only to the Commonwealth Privacy Act 1988 and section 16A in your
answer (3 marks).
END OF ASSESSMENT