Separating fact from fiction in the disability support pension debate

Decline in number of low-skilled jobs and lack of employment for people with disabilities

There is some evidence that the reduced availability of low skilled jobs has impacted DSP numbers.People with a disability face high barriers to employment, including employer reluctance to hire PWD.Prime Minister Gillard has said that there are many thousands of individuals on the DSP who have a capacity to work, yet employment of PWD in the public service has declined from 6.6 per cent (1986) to 3.1 per cent (2010).Clearly someone didn’t get the memo. This is a governmental policy failure according to Federal Disability Commissioner Graeme Innes, who has described the situation as “shameful”.

In fact the public servants at Centrelink, Medicare, FACHSIA, and DHS are unlikely to ever see an employed PWD. In the workplace, stereotyping occurs more frequently when a specific group has not been represented in the employee group before, or when there is a perception that the person does not fit in the category of “people who work here”. The absence of people with a disability employed in any sector will lead to a confirmation bias that people with a disability do not work, and by deduction, do not want to. 

Incentives for applying for DSP rather than Newstart and economic downturn

The “incentives” referred to are a higher payment rate, tax-free status, more generous income and assets testing and absence of job search requirements. This is consistent with overall welfare policy whereby lower allowances are paid to those who are deemed to have a capacity to work, while higher amounts are paid to those not expected to work.

Long-term unemployment is different to short term unemployment. Short-term unemployment payments are stretched to provide for food and mortgage payments, long-term unemployment payments are stretched to purchase a fridge and pay weekly rent.

DSP applicants must demonstrate the requisite impairment and medically certify a continuing inability to work for 15 hours or more a week. DSP applications account for more appeals than any other income support payment,andalmost a quarter of these appeals result in the original decision being set aside (Submission on the Social Security and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2011 by the National Welfare Rights Network 24 August 2011). 

In order to receive income support while waiting to be assessed for the DSP, Newstart can provide a bridging payment due to faster processing rates. Contrary to assumptions about false claims, the Auditor General’s Audit Report into Centrelink Fraud reports the proportion of cases referred to the Director of Public Prosecutions by payment type.  Cases involving the DSP were second lowest, with only Aged Pension cases less likely to result in prosecution.

Australia rates very poorly on employment rate for PWD. The PWD employment rate is declining even with economic growth, and despite improvements in other countries.While government response has been tightening eligibility, research demonstrates that reducing access to disability pensions simply increases the number of people with a severe disability who live in poverty.

The role of the media is critical in providing informed debate as to how we ensure the availability of employment opportunities for people with a disability, rather than stereotyping DSP recipients as social deviantswho simply do not want to work. The data is available, and it can be accessed. It does not indicate that people with a disability have no incentive to work or that higher payment levels create any such disincentive. 

To the contrary, it evidences two distinctly different groups entering the DSP: those at the beginning and those at the end of their working lives. They have different needs, and different potentials. The best antidote to welfare dependency and exclusion is understanding the reality of these two groups, and responding accordingly.