Jobs plan may hurt disabled

The
Catholic Weekly
Online

Sydney
22 February 2004

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Jobs plan may hurt disabled

By Chris Lindsay

Plans to shift people with disabilities into work may harm rather than help many of them, the St Vincent de Paul Society warns.

The Government has launched a six month $840,000 trial which rewards job placement services with up to $6000 for every person on a disability support pension who is placed in a job.

John Falzon, national researcher with Vinnies’ national council, says the society does not doubt that some disabled people are prepared to do work and “some may benefit enormously from doing it”.

But it disputes the focus of the policy, which is on the outcome of removing people from income support into paid employment, rather than on the needs of these people.

“Any policy for disabled people should have as its priority outcome the improvement of their living conditions,” Mr Falzon said. “If that includes paid work, great, but that should not be the priority outcome.

“We need some way of checking that the disabled people going into the workforce are not moving out of the frying pan into the fire.

“What is required is respect for these people as human beings, not just as recipients of a pension.”

Mr Falzon said the Government’s plan puts cost savings before people.

“It is naïve to imagine that these people's needs are going to disappear with participation in paid work,” he said.

“Vinnies sees this focus as ill-advised, and unworthy of any government that claims to take seriously its duty of care for its citizens.”

He said many elements in the lives of the disabled had more pressing needs for government action than reducing levels of income support.

A short list of these included:

• Adequate access to carers (currently critically under-funded)
• Improved personal mobility support (currently funding is being reduced)
• Life-skills training
• Education opportunities;
• Access to participation in community life
• Provision of appropriate housing.

“Initiatives to increase work participation by people with disabilities should ensure that the risks which may arise out of the move into paid work are properly addressed,” Mr Falzon said.

“For example, if the level of care is now inadequate, how will the needed care be not only fitted into the new work schedule, but also be increased to an adequate level while this is accomplished?

“Will the person with a disability become subject to 'mutual obligation' and breaching sanctions?

“The present breaching system is demonstrably unjust.

“What happens when a disabled person is employed, and then loses the job? Do they have a six week wait until income support resumes, as do others who become unemployed?

“Until there is a carefully planned program, which addresses these and the many other potential problems, the St Vincent de Paul Society is concerned that the current strategy may result in many people being worse off in the long term.”