Barriers to study for the disabled

The Liberal Government attempted to change, or reduce entitlements for students with disabilities in the 2003 budget. For example, an email from the co-convener for the Australasian Network of Students with Disabilities (ANSWD) states:

[I]t has been brought to my attention by a member of ANSWD that the Pensioner Education Supplement is to be cut by 25 per cent. This was part of the main welfare reforms in the 2003 budget. They seem to believe that you don't require your Education supplement during the three months vacation [summer 2003 -04]. I would have thought that [many people with disabilities] would have to be preparing for study over the summer break.

The PES is a meagre education supplement that can be applied for by those on the pension, but the government could see wisdom in reducing this already small entitlement.

The Pensioner Education Supplement (PES) was first introduced under the federally funded Austudy/Abstudy scheme in 1987, and since 1998 it has been funded through Centrelink. The Pensioner Education Supplement is to provide those in receipt of a pension with an incentive to further their education, by offering them pecuniary incentives to be used towards the extra cost of study materials. It is a flat payment of about $30 a week and a once-yearly entry into education payment of about $200.

In 2003, Amanda Vanstone, then Minister for Family and Community Services stated in the Senate:

If you take two people who are pensioners - one of whom is not studying and one who is - over the summer break they will be in the same position, because the one who is studying is not attending their university or TAFE course over the summer break and is therefore not in need of the supplement. They will not be without assistance. They will be in the same position as hundreds of thousands of other disability support pensioners who are not undertaking tertiary study.

This drives home the fact many politicians have failed to acknowledge the diverse problems likely to arise from a disability. The practical fulfillment of higher education for people with disabilities can help to alleviate some of these. For people with disabilities higher education can help to lift self esteem.

This issue has particularly filled me with rage, for the reason that from the years of 1993-1997, I was a recipient of this supplement. Although the extra benefit was nowhere close to enough it was something. It helped to keep my head above water, in a learning environment not suited to many people with disabilities.

Another education expense incurred during my years of study from 1993-1997 was the substantial cost of the M50 (a vehicle capable of transporting those confined to the wheelchair) taxi-fares, as public transport is definitely not suitable to somebody in my condition (Friedreich’s Ataxia) when I attended the peninsula campus of Monash University.

During this time I attended classes about three times a week for the 26-week period: a round trip in the taxi cost about $30. While the extraordinary expense was not entirely covered by the PES it did provide some contribution thereby  enabling me to complete my undergraduate studies.

In 1997, I completed a Masters qualifying year at the Clayton campus of Monash University where for doing this I was in receipt of the PES and my taxi costs were about the same.

I decided to speed up the process of getting a degree by taking on summer school. For many people with severe physical disabilities, and despite Vanstone’s comments, there is no break from regularity of the day-to-day existence provided by a disability. Cutting out the pittance of additional support we get through the pensioner education supplement further limits the choices of higher education for students with disabilities.

According to Vanstone in 2003, by reducing the supplement to pensioners, we would save $39 million in four years. Such savings would reduce the governmental burden of social spending and add to the prospects of a healthy budget surplus.

Despite the governments attempt to remove the PES during the summer break they were not successful, as the bill was unable to gain passage through a hostile senate, as for this particular bill the government had failed to gain influence over the senate.

In conclusion, my knowledge and experience of digital updates and political reforms within the disability sector, allows me to question the social and economic costs of denying adequate government entitlements for the higher education of people with disabilities.