The Welfare to Work legislation has had significant consequences for Australia’s disabled, writes Sarah Tracton.

The Australian government introduced significant changes to welfare policy in July 2006.

The legislation, called Welfare to Work, reduces welfare dependency, according to the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations (DEWR). The idea is to shift the disabled into the work force but there has been significant consequences for Australia’s disabled population.

Disability advocates have labelled the legislation as draconian and punitive and there are fears that the reforms have created a new under class among the most marginalised and impoverished.

“People with disabilities are struggling to make ends meet,” says Maryanne Diamond, CEO of the Australian Federation of Disabilities Organisation.

“People are going to be forced to work [who] can’t afford to work and it’s going to cost them more than their income. As a person with a disability it often costs you more to participate than if you don’t work.”

Those deemed capable of working 15 hours a week or more are being moved from the Disability Support Pension (DSP) to lower payments on Newstart Allowance.

The National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling (NATSEM) states that the new system cuts previous incomes by up to a quarter. Under the changes, the study shows that people with disabilities earn as low as $2.27 an hour. [LINK: ]

“The fact is the Government doesn’t know. But [it] is happy to spin a few factoids into an impression that people with disabilities, [who] are being forced onto lower payments, are actually getting jobs when there is no evidence to back this,” says Michael Raper, President of National Welfare Rights Network (NWRN).

The NWRN, a watchdog of welfare rights across Australia, says the government is masking an inconvenient truth: 4,215 people with disabilities are worse off under the new system.

“How much the budget savings are coming from the pockets of disabled people [is unknown],” says Raper.

The Australian Council of Social Services (ACOSS) estimates ten per cent of Australians live in poverty and 700,000 people received the DSP in 2006. The Department will save an estimated $800 million in the first three years of its introduction, says ACOSS.

There are no statistics available to show how many people under Newstart Allowance are actually gaining employment, says Raper.

The Department of Human Services has “tried hard to put a positive spin on the new Welfare to Work changes — claiming they have resulted in savings of millions of dollars in welfare payments. Unfortunately, the evidence does appear to support [Minister Hockey’s] spin.”

However, DPS payments were decreasing even before Welfare to Work existed, Raper claims.

Dr Sharman Stone, Minister for Workplace Participation, disagrees that the legislation negatively affects disabled people in the community. Instead, she says, the government is encouraging communal inclusion.

“People with a disability are too often stereotyped as incapable of productive employment,” she says. “No two people are the same and everyone that wants to work and can, needs to be offered the chance to be economically independent.”

The disabled are valued in the Australian work force and Employers need more incentives to employ staff with disability, encourage retention and reduce high turnover, says Stone.

“Research shows that people with disability take fewer days off, take less sick leave and have fewer compensation incidents and accidents at work than other employees.”

The government has injected $3.6 billion to assist 54,000 people with a disability move into viable employment, says Stone. This includes an additional $192 million over three years to support people overcoming injuries in the Vocational Rehabilitation Program.

But there is also a tough new compliance and penalty system. Up to 20,000 people face eight weeks without income for a ‘three strike’ breach of the rules, according to Senate estimates. [LINK: ] Breaches include refusing a job offer or failing to attend an interview, leaving those affected at high risk of becoming homeless.

There are concerns that Welfare to Work in conjunction with WorkChoices legislation is creating a ‘working poor’ in the disabled community, as the vulnerable are forced into jobs with minimum pay and conditions.

Stringent Job Capacity Assessments — to test a person’s ability to work 15 hours a week — are also inadequate and invasive, says Maryanne Diamond.

“People need to reveal a lot of personal information,” she says. “It’s done in a short time frame, with an allied professional — not necessarily someone from the medical profession who knows about that disability.”

Changed circumstances such as chronic illness are also inadequately managed, according to the Australian Federation of Disabilities Organisation.

People are being forced into employment unsuited to their disability due to inappropriate assessments. High medical costs place additional pressure on strained finances. A quadriplegic may need to pay for a taxi, when public transport is inadequate. People with disabilities “have been required to go to work when they are ill, creating stress and fear,” says Diamond.

“Many people are participating in the community at higher levels and yet we introduce legislation like Welfare to Work that blames the individual for not working.”

“No one in the community expects to work for nothing.”