RECOMMENDATIONS Article 27 -
That Australia conducts a comprehensive review of the current employment support arrangements for people with a disability with a view to developing a national plan to significantly increase support for men and women with disability, in particular men and women with intellectual disability to move from school to training to open employment.
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That Australia ceases to fund segregated workplace options.
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That Australia funds employment support for all people with disability that is attached to the individual and is able to be used in mainstream settings.
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That Australia conducts an audit of the current supported employment wage assessment tools and industrial conditions with a view to ensuring that people with disability receive equitable and fair remuneration for their work, and receive the supports they need to move from supported employment to open employment. That Australia increases investment in addressing structural barriers to the employment of men and women with disability, in relation to workplace accommodations and adaption, accessibility of workplaces, flexibility of work requirements and accessible and affordable public transport.
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That Australia adopts initiatives to increase employment participation of women with disability by addressing the specific underlying structural barriers to their workforce participation.
STATUS IN AUSTRALIA -
Australia does not adequately protect the right to an adequate standard of living and social protection. People with disability are consistently overrepresented in indicators of financial hardship and poverty. Almost one in two people with a disability in Australia live in or near poverty (45 percent). This is more than 2.5 times the rate of poverty experienced by people without disability and more than double the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) average of 22 percent. Australia is by far the worst performer on this indicator, ranking 27th out of 27 OECD countries.584
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A Senate Inquiry into Poverty and Financial Hardship (2004) found widespread poverty among people with disability and recommended that a new welfare allowance be introduced to address the extra costs associated with disability, such as the need for professional carers, special education and employment support.585 People with a disability have lower household incomes than those without a disability, with 45 percent having an equivalised gross household income in the lowest quintile in 2008 compared with 35 percent of those without a disability.
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Eligibility criteria to access disability income support are too rigid and are fundamentally based on a system of categorising disabilities rather than assessing needs of individuals. As a result, one in seven recipients of lower allowances such as NewStart Allowance - $128 a week less than the DSP - has a partial work capacity because of disability.586 Many people with disability applying for DSP are automatically placed on NewStart while they prove they are unable to get work, despite significant community concern that this measure is both unfair and will be ineffective in helping people to find work.587
Case Study
“Disability support recipients live lives of fear and desperation. Sooner or later every disability support recipient I know has confessed to the concern they feel over the ‘what if’ factor—what if government stops paying social security/disability support?”588
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Women with disability disproportionately receive a parenting allowance which is at a lower rate than the Disability Support Pension (DSP). In October 2011, the single rate for parenting allowance was $641.50 compared with the Disability Support Pension of $689.00.
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The current Federal Government has said that continuing to introduce measures to shift people with disability onto lower payments are aimed at providing incentives to work,589 however data shows that rates of labour force participation for people with disability have not changed significantly between 1993 and 2009.590 The shift of people with disability to NewStart began in 2005 under a previous Federal Government; this information suggests that lower payments do not increase employment among people with disability.
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Access to services, devices and aids is based on rigid eligibility criteria rather than need. (See Article 20)
Case Study
“I am almost totally deaf. I have had significant problems dealing with Centrelink. They do not understand my disability and how it affects my ability to work. They suggested employment options that would be ridiculous for someone with a hearing impairment: eg Accounts Payable which is almost all telephone work, Child-minding (how dangerous would that be for the children if I can’t hear what they are saying). They refused my application for DSP and only granted it once I paid for an Independent OT report which was used by the Job Capacity Assessor to write a new assessment. I was finally granted my DSP after going through the Social Security Appeals Tribunal and the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.”591
Impairment Ratings Exclude Certain Disability Types -
The Federal Government has introduced changes to legislation that are designed to reduce the number of persons deemed eligible for the DSP and move them to a much lower payment for unemployment benefits. An Impairment table has been developed for this purpose that redefines disability. Impairment ratings are only given to people whose medical condition has been fully documented and diagnosed, and has also been investigated, treated and stabilised for two years. Government commissioned research anticipates that these changes will lead to a significantly lower number of approved DSP applications.592
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There are some key groups of people with disability for whom this process creates the risk of non-compliance:593
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people with psychosocial disability;594
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people who are seriously ill;
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people with fluctuating or episodic conditions;
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people who have undiagnosed conditions;
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people with drug and alcohol dependence; and
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people with two or more mild conditions which combine to have a serious impact.
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All migrants that come to Australia (except for those immigrating on humanitarian grounds) have to wait two years before they can access general income support. However migrants with a disability have to wait ten years as specified by the Social Security Act 1991 (Cth)595 in order to access the DSP.
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The ten year qualifying period creates financial difficulties for the estimated 5,000 affected migrants with disability, particularly if they are unable to achieve financial security through employment.596
Case Study
S. was accepted into New Zealand under the Humanitarian program and then migrated to Australia to be reunited with another family member. She has post-traumatic stress disorder and severe depression as a result of her experience of trauma. Although S. has limited English proficiency, Centrelink has not provided her with a translated explanation for why she was not eligible for the Disability Support Pension and so over the years she has constantly struggled to understand why she has not be eligible: for example, she has thought that the authorities must not believe she has a disability. When Welfare to Work changes were implemented, S. was transferred from a sickness benefit to Newstart Allowance which required her to actively look for work and lodge an application every two weeks to receive the allowance. As a result of advocacy she was assessed and placed on a Personal Support Program which meant she could meet the requirements of this program by attending counselling. However this program is due to finish soon and she will still have another 6 months before her 10 years is up. This is very emotionally and financially stressful for S. every time there is a change and she is faced with new requirements that she will have difficulty meeting.
Ensuring an Adequate Standard of Living -
The level of income support available to people with disability in Australia is often insufficient to ensure an adequate standard of living. People with disability are more likely to reside in the poorest postcodes of Australia’s capital cities,597 and often experience a lack of access to things the community considers basic essentials.598 This stems from a number of issues, including:
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the rate of the DSP payable being too low and subject to strict eligibility criteria;
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disability allowances are insufficient to cover the extra cost of living with a disability;
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the inadequacy of the DSP is particularly illustrated by the comments of those in supported accommodation settings or aged care facilities, where a large portion of their pension is taken by the care facility;
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some government enforced accommodation options consume almost the entirety of a person’s income, leaving limited disposable income leading to an inadequate standard of living;
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means testing and work requirements of social security payments reinforces poverty level living. Means testing and work requirements on concession cards and services and other allowances create a disincentive to work; and
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for people in nursing homes, most of their DSP is taken by the service providers. This leaves little for other things such as outings and haircuts.599
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Section 49 of the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 (Cth) exempts insurers from full coverage of people with disability.600 This means that people with disability and their families are, in some cases, not eligible for the same income protection available to the wider community.
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In 2002, just over one third of people from an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander background aged 15 years or older reported a disability or long term health problem in the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Survey, spread relatively evenly over remote and non-remote areas.601 However, people from an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander background are underrepresented in Commonwealth services.602 The isolation of some Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, especially in the Northern Territory and north Western Australia, make it difficult for them to get access to services which are predominantly located in the major population areas.
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A 2008 survey noted that over half of all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with a disability were receiving a government pension or allowance as their principle source of income.603
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There is a lack of access to appropriate housing and urban infrastructure (including clean water and sanitation) in many remote settlements where Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders with disability live. Many people with disability in these communities are living in families that are also living in poverty and where there are higher rates of disease, substance abuse and domestic violence. Disability support programs and services do not effectively reach many people with disability in these remote communities or may not be flexible or compatible with cultural values and traditions.
Lack of Measures Taken to Recognise the Connection between Poverty and Disability -
In Australia, very few studies have measured the connection between disability and poverty. One study that has been published by the Social Policy Research Centre604 makes a link between the incidence of disability and the risk of poverty and actual hardship.605 Further statistical information in this area is required in order to ensure that government programs are achieving the outcomes envisaged by Article 28.
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There is no recognition of the cost of disability to the individual. This is compounded by the inability to afford disability services.
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