While Australia provides income security through the Disability Support Pension (DSP) and other allowances, people with disability are over represented in indicators of financial hardship and poverty. Australians with disability are ranked 27th out of 27 countries in the OECD nation rankings for poverty. Despite this, Australia has introduced punitive measures to force people with disability who are deemed to have a capacity for work, off the DSP and on to unemployment benefits that are a much lower level of income. New impairment Tables that have been introduced will impact negatively on particular groups of people with disability and are not a fair or useful strategy for promoting employment of people with disability.
While a significant percentage of people from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities report some type of impairment or health condition, lack of culturally appropriate employment models and limited support services in more remote communities mean that this population is even more severely disadvantaged.
Migrants with disability coming to Australia (other than those coming on humanitarian grounds) are forced to wait ten years before they can access a Disability Support Pension.
This report calls for Australia to reform income security to enable people with disability to have a liveable level of income that takes into account the different needs of people with disability from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and that eliminates the qualifying period for access to the DSP for migrants.
