Eight years ago Michael David Robson was stabbed in the head and left partially paralysed and with no functional speech.

At the time, the Criminal Injuries Compensation Board wrote: "The prognosis for full recovery is zero." He was awarded just $37,000 in compensation.

The attack ended a promising career in the hospitality industry - he had just graduated from a programme in hotel and restaurant management at Becker College, Massachusetts.

He held two jobs - as a waiter at Lantana, where he had worked during his summer breaks and as a beach attendant at The Reefs.

He lived independently in his own apartment which he shared with his girlfriend.

Now, Mr. Robson, who was 21 when he was injured, has been totally dependent on his parents ever since, and he communicates by drawing and gesturing.

Lawyer and MP Trevor Moniz says that Mr. Robson's case was one good reason why existing pension legislation needs to be amended urgently.

Despite being clearly incapacitated, Mr. Robson does not qualify for disability benefits under existing laws. An amendment to the Contributory Pensions Act, eliminating a one-year waiting period for the terminally-ill to receive their benefits, made it through the House of Assembly last week, but not before Mr. Moniz had argued that it was possible under existing legislation for people to be incapacitated for life and not be eligible for any benefits at all. He said then that people could fall through the cracks if they had not made enough contributions to qualify for benefits under the Contributory Pensions Act, and had made too many contributions to qualify for non-contributory benefits. That amounted to what he called a "lacuna in the law". Health Minister Nelson Bascome responded by saying that financial assistance was another source of funds for those who fell through the legislative cracks.

Labour and Home Affairs Minister Paula Cox, who, as acting Finance Minister introduced the bill, said that Government was looking at a thorough review of pensions legislation.

This week Mr. Moniz told The Royal Gazette that the scenario given was not hypothetical. "The standard response is that situation will never arise," he said. "But I have been helping people like this for the last 20 years." Mr. Robson is one of them.

His application for non-contributory benefits was refused in 1995 because he had made payments into the Social Insurance scheme. Because he had made less than 150 contributions into the scheme, he was turned down for contributory benefits. No one, however, doubted that he was disabled for life and could no longer be gainfully employed.

,"I remember when I received those letters - I was shocked," said Carol Schmellick, Mr. Robson's mother.

"It upset me so much - then I got angry... and got a lawyer."

Mr. Moniz wrote to then-Finance Minister David Saul and Health Minister Quinton Edness seeking an explanation as to "why there appears to be no support for those people who are disabled, but who have made somewhere between one and 149 social insurance contributions".

A year and three months later, in 1996, the Finance Ministry wrote back saying that the Act was deficient and an amendment was on the way. That hasn't happened.

Mr. Robson was also initially turned down for financial assistance- Mr. Bascome's fallback - because, according to the Department of Financial Assistance his "income" (the money received from the criminal injuries compensation board) exceeded "allowable expenses".

The compensation money has long been spent on specialist treatment abroad for his severe brain injuries.

Ms Schmellick lobbied the authorities hard to reverse their decision on Financial Assistance. When they finally relented, Mr. Robson started receiving $450 a month - and much of that went towards costs of physical and speech therapy.

A St. Brendan's psychiatrist told The Royal Gazette that Mr. Robson was not the only one who is affected by the legal loophole. "We're talking scores" of patients, he said. Schizophrenia patients, in particular, are affected, he aid, because the disease typically strikes in mid adulthood.

"It's likely that someone has started work but has worked less than five years", which puts them at risk of not having made enough payments to qualify for disability benefits, the doctor said.

Government's amendment for the terminally-ill was the first amendment to pensions legislation in 20 years.

No one on the Government side argued with Mr. Moniz point in the House of Assembly last week. given that previous Government recognised the deficiency in the law and not done anything about it, he had his doubts that meaningful action will take place anytime soon.

"What I'm trying to do is keep it on the radar screen," he said. "She [Minister Paula Cox will say it's being reviewed and five years down the road, it's not done." Mr. Moniz wants the law amended and applied retroactively to cover Mr. Robson's case. "This is a real injustice - it's not hypothetical." And he pointed out that not everyone in similar straits would get a lawyer. "When they're turned down they just accept it."

Ms Cox did not return calls by press time.

Mr. Robson is now a resident of St. Brendan's Hospital suffering from severe depression. Last Christmas he attempted suicide with a massive overdose of his medication.

Ms Schmellick says that the "living nightmare" which began in July 1993, just four months after her son started working full-time, has cost her more in terms of mental and emotional ordeal than financial hardship. But she adds : "I don't know what would have happened if I were a single parent."