Jacqui White, the 51-year-old disability pensioner challenging the Abbott government over its plans to restructure the support payment, says recipients are no different to any other Australians.
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The only thing that sets them apart is an encounter with ill-health or other misfortune.
A single mother, Ms White sings the praises of her 16-year-old son who, she says, acts as her legs, keeps her going and combines being an unacknowledged carer with his school studies and part-time work.
It is less than a decade since she began ''leaving normal''. Until then she was married, in regular employment and largely taking life for granted. A move from Canberra to Brisbane in 2005 contributed to the emergence of symptoms of what is believed to be a long-standing case of multiple sclerosis. She moved back in 2010.
''A lot of people with MS are heat intolerant,'' she said. ''My neurologist says I have had the condition for at least 10 years and possibly up to 20.''
Plagued by dizzy spells and migraines, Ms White eventually had to leave her job as a financial planner. ''My employers were great; they adjusted my hours and really tried to make it work, but you just reach a point where [because of your illness] you aren't reliable enough to hold down the job.''
Refusing to give in, she signed on with a cleaning contractor but, after a time, even that proved too much.
''It was horrible … I had always been an outdoors, active, healthy person. This is not what I expected or planned,'' she said.
Ms White, who paid taxes or contributed to the community through volunteer work for 30 years, said she never begrudged that money being used to help people in need.
''[The DSP] is a safety net,'' she said. ''It is part of the social contract; we help people when they need it.''
She has contributed to society in other ways. The mother of four children, including grown twins, is a former president of the Canberra Multiple Birth Association: ''I've had one for mum, one for dad and two for the country.''
The disability support pension, which pays just under $400 a week compared with about $245 a week for Newstart, has been vital.
''For a lot of people it would be the difference between eating and not, between having a roof over their head and not, or even just survival or not,'' Ms White said. ''What human price is this country prepared to pay to save some money?''