If you find yourself in need of a clear and transparent observation of non existent disability bludgers at work, call me for an immediate appointment, anytime, any day.

"Think laterally. People with vision impairments have worked extremely effectively in call centres because of their reliance on sound cues. Understand the unique strengths of people with a disability, and find opportunities."

I've picked this out as I know several people who are what they themselves refer to as being on the "blind pension."

One of them worked for many years on a help desk and did very well at until they're ability to "suffer fools asking ridiculous questions" made them decide that it was easier to sit back on the pension, even though for a person considered legally blind, you can earn as much as you want while the tax-payer's funded pension keeps rolling in. Yes, that's right! Under the current system, a recipient of a vision impaired pension can earn any amount without ever loosing the pension.

To reiterate, another blind person I know of earns over $100,000 a year and still retains the pension, but not so with other pension recipients. A recent change to legislation now means that for anybody else on a disability pension, once they work for a certain length of time, then they loose the right to go back onto a pension should they become ill some time in the future as a complication or extension of the former disability. In the case of mental illness, this situation is a common occurrence and from working in the field, I know of several people who had begun training for a degree or certificate only to purposefully "throw" the exams and fail since they didn't want to be forced into work where the only default position following a relapse of their illness was sickness benefits complete with the lower income rate not to mention the mindless, cruel and degrading hoops they'd have to endure through Centerstink (sic).

Cont:

Surely the Government must be able to reason that while the former pension recipient is working, they're also paying taxes and of course there's always the chance that they won't relapse and continue paying taxes. People, forced by fear of loosing the pension forever, have no incentive to try to life themselves out of their particular rut. To do so will, in all probability, result in finding themselves in a worse position.

<Sensible debate about the Disability Support Pension (DSP) can get lost in sensationalism. Inevitably when the issue gets a higher profile in the media, so too will stories of “pension cheats” and alarmist portrayals of the rise in the number of people on DSP.

Many arguments used to justify a crackdown on disability pensions are false or misleading. Myths like it is easy to get, that numbers of people on DSP are out of control and that it is for people who do not want to work are simply untrue.>
Andrew McCallum, Disability Support Pensions: the myths and the facts
http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=3030

Nothing has changed, the wedge politics that singles out various vulnerable groups in society to be blamed is more popular than ever and feeds the shock jocks and tabloid media. As if someone with (say) a severe mental disorder or crippling arthritis is enjoying life and seeking to abuse the system.

A legal perspective,
http://www.lawfoundation.net.au/ljf/app/ADD8D0AC0CF007B6CA25718E000758CC.html

I can't imagine anyone sitting back on the pension and enjoying them-self can you.

I can't imagine anyone sitting back on the pension and enjoying them-self can you.
579,
you're right on that one !

As time moves forward, our argument stagnates where we isolate one group from another rather then using truth to slam open the door at the heart of the problem.

"Incentive" is a great word if the mutual "gratification" were serious. Incentive has no teeth either through Centerlink nor the job net services less you want to be a chef, typist, or car mechanic. While the job net services are supposed to be targeting the individual, and connecting them to resources within business and the community, you find they know little except how to advise you about being a chef, typist or car mechanic. If you don't fit this profile they either do a 'JCA' test on you and attempt to push you into the void so a- typical of welfare cycles, where your empowerment risks becoming even more burdened or they send you to DEEWR, which is useless as a general faceless call centre, when it comes to problem solving.

Centerlink passes the buck handing the highly tendered funding contract on to corporate job net providers. They are form and funding driven, hardly people centered or knowledgeable about what's out there in "community".

As a Newstart person I have been fighting off being place in the bracket of disabilities since I became unemployed. My underemployment had to do with living in a rural remote region and now, after moving to find work, disconnected from the wider community as a result of arriving in the new location. The cost of the job-hunt out weighs the welfare support given. It is about broken connectivity, not statistics.

I ward off being placed on disabilities because I do not have a disability. I am alarmed at how "capacity" is read by our society and refuse to rort the system just to satisfy corporate funding bodies though I would give anything to have Centerlink off my back.

More Below

My point is about the "Next Step". Be it for those with a disability, or those "others" coping from disadvantage who belong to minority groups, there is a "Next Step". The "Next Step" has to do with NGO's, Governments, these Corporate funded [so called] job net support services and the entire linkages back to community, including business entities.

We are blamed for their failure to connect. We are blamed because of their failure to link resources that are appropriate to the diverse populations present within the social service disadvantaged categories of ability, skills and pathways of ongoing growth and intelligence.

As a innovative development consultant myself, I label no one. We are all civilians. Some employed, able to engage with mainstream and some of us shut out by gate-keepers. Lazy public servants and bureaucrats thriving on the "I'm okay, you're okay" mindset just do this.

Projection, stigmatisation and discrimination is dislocating. Plain english doesn't work with these agencies, it is too much information. Their preference is the band-aid you with scenario's that feed the waged workers inside the welfare loop. Here there is a lot of "telling" and little innovative structures for integrating and listening and connecting.

The "Next Step" is to see each person as a person in society who has the potential to contribute value. Their activities need to be economically and socially rewarded, with the respect due for many of us who for a variety of reasons are becoming increasingly left out of the loop. For elder Australian's it is just as debilitating as it is for "other" focus groups to climb back into society if you find yourself disconnected. You become a threat if you have skill, history and knowledge and passively sidelined if you use a walking stick or have particular needs, such as the hours that you can work.

As I said, "The Next Step" is about is about employment income. The needs of income and employment for every Australian, as a right to their citizenship, civic health and our civic well-being as a society.

More Below

The situation for most unemployed and partly employed people at present is a nightmare. The barriers are ever increasing and profound. If resilience itself were a determinate for getting a job I say most of those we find among the diversely unemployed would get the recognition we are due, over those who lack the innovation to see change where it is vitally due.

http://www.miacat.com/

The Business Council of Australia. If there members were to pay a fair share, instead of avoiding their obligations to Australia, there would be plenty of money for flood relief etc. After all they minimise tax because they are the ones who wrote the tax laws and can employ the smarts to make it all happen!

While there are 2 million Australians [prime minister] chasing 200,000 vacancies [ABS] the numbers of people on Disability Pensions will remain high.

There are shocking numbers of people who are clearly too sick to work [eg suffering double vision] who are denied DSP and have to cope on the lesser payments of Newstart.

WHy should the big miners be able to avoid paying their fair share of taxes. Realistically how can a billionaire mine owner like Twiggy Forrest, Clive Palmer or Gina Rheinhart spend all they have now, let alone what they will accumulate in the future?

So Clear and Concise!

As Paul140 writes, "The Business Council of Australia. If there members were to pay a fair share, instead of avoiding their obligations to Australia, there would be plenty of money for flood relief etc. After all they minimise tax because they are the ones who wrote the tax laws and can employ the smarts to make it all happen!"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_social_responsibility

With the common sense and questions from Billie, "While there are 2 million Australians [prime minister] chasing 200,000 vacancies [ABS] the numbers of people on Disability Pensions will remain high.

There are shocking numbers of people who are clearly too sick to work [eg suffering double vision] who are denied DSP and have to cope on the lesser payments of Newstart.

WHy should the big miners be able to avoid paying their fair share of taxes. Realistically how can a billionaire mine owner like Twiggy Forrest, Clive Palmer or Gina Rheinhart spend all they have now, let alone what they will accumulate in the future?"

http://www.abc.net.au/rn/lifematters/stories/2011/3135160.htm

Why, Why Why, does it have to be like this. This is Australia, a Developed Nation we say working for Sustainablity. If it is about Reform, comes first?

http://www.miacat.com/