Well, what about it, Joe Hockey? You have just said that work is the best welfare and here is our most disadvantaged group of people just trying to get ahead. Are you going to give them a go or keep them poor and dependent for life

Well what do you know.

Another welfare recipient more interested in maximising the amount they can sponge off the taxpayer, rather than earn as much as possible, & reduce their load on others.

Welcome to the real world of welfare buddy. Do you really think it is only you that face transition problems when moving to a self supporting style of life. The problem is the same for able bodied recipients, & also for parents paying child care.

The bucket of money has to serve more than just you. Just look outside of your own little life & you might notice many of those providing your welfare are no better off than you.

Time to get off bitching, & to try living. A little thank you for all you do get would be nice too.

Hard to argue against any of this! Particularly given I am permanently partially disabled.
I just don't understand different treatment for different people.
Yes sure, becoming blind is extremely incapacitating, and where you need to rely on others for almost everything, including something as basic getting the food on the plate into the mouth, or nails cut?
Consequently, they have the most generous tax treatment of all the benefits.
Cerebral palsy, also comes in quantitative incapacitates, that are nonetheless, hard to actually quantify, particularly when there are good days and bad days, and sadly, people bunging on an act that seems to disappear, when they believe they're alone.
And while one might be able to count these professional bludgers on the fingers of one hand, they spoil it for everyone else; as do those who collect multiple pensions under a number of assumed aliases?
Imagine if we had an expenditure tax; or, applied the GST to everything? Benefits could be far more generous, perhaps even double! Allowing the federal government to give all the disadvantaged a far fairer shake!
And given all would still pay their share of an expenditure tax/GST, able to also earn as much income as their disability will allow, with the blind simply not limited at all?
Even so, there are disabilities, that make just doing what needs to be done to get by, more difficult than being blind, particularly if you're born that way?
But given recent advances, allowing many to overcome the disadvantages!
Like bionics and genetics in combination, granting a possible level of sight, not previously available?
Profound disability is cruel, and benefits and tax treatment on very modest allowable incomes, just needs to be changed. But not too much, given two can live nearly as cheaply as one. The fiddge doesn't use less electricity nor the stove, just because you are alone, nor the car or mower less petrol, etc/etc!
However, we are not Nazis, and those born different, just don't need the state to be rolling out further disadvantages, or "bureaucratic solutions", that turn life into a virtual prison, indefinitely!
Rhrosty.

It has been said that a nation’s greatness is measured by how it treats its weakest. Disability Support Pension is supposed to help Australia's most vulnerable people and a growing number of struggling people with genuine disabilities are being denied support. Having personally experienced the brutal and inhumane appeal process when a Disability Support Pension is cancelled I believe it is time the government stopped demonising and persecuting Australia's disabled. Even those disabled who want to work but require some temporary support via the DSP are being forced onto Newstart where they end up struggling to survive.

Australia ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities on 17 July 2008 but numerous newspaper articles suggest this holds very little weight for people with disabilities in Australia. This Convention is meaningless if the government fails to support it.

I believe the Government should take a totally different view of disabled people and instead of persecuting and demonising them they should seek to support and nurture them so they could contribute more to society. Some of the world's most famous people had or have disabilities. Examples are Vincent Van Gogh, Beethoven, Stephen Hawking and Helen Keller. It is well known that some of those who survive serious accidents turn into some of the best business people. Brendon Burchard was injured in an accident when he was young. Richard Branson suffered dyslexia. Some of the greatest political leaders had disabilities. Franklin Roosevelt had a mobility impairment. Even Richard Lalor who led the Eureka Stockade which brought the birth of democracy to Australia suffered disability.

The government only consulted with one if not two disabled people with the "lived" experience when they implemented the new Disability Impairment Tables for the DSP in 2012. The assessment process employed by Centrelink is fraught with issues some detailed in the Taylor Fry Report relating to the implementation the Tables. This is unacceptable.

It is time for this government to stop and consider the opinions of those who could, if given the opportunity, become some of the most valuable members of Australian society.

justicefordisabled@iinet.net.au

Come off it Justice for Disabled, this bloke has a Masters of Laws Degree from the Australian National University. Who the hell do you think paid for that.

How dishonest is it to take as place in university, & cost the taxpayer a fortune, if you do not plan on using that education to earn a living, & pay back your HECS debt. Someone who would have used the education to do just that, missed out to enable this bloke to gain his education.

Rhrosty if you can't see well enough to feed yourself, how do you partake of this forum?

David...I admire your dedication and devotion in this matter, with understanding all must or should be allocated with-in a fair society....

"I know only too well that the current Disability Support Pension policies do not support this as much as they should"

Dave....Its the same old story that's been going on for as long as humans with their "moral" commitments, but your not the only one with their hand out for what your standing for....but keep up the good work, cause at least someone cares.

PS...This is the best system we have at this time...maybe if our leaders could avoid being in the red....the black will become the light.

Good luck.

Kat

I believe that David’s knowledge and “lived” experience would have and could still be of immense value to those involved in writing government policy relating to disability. His rationale, education and well supported opinions appear to be far superior to many of those involved with the implementation of the DSP Impairment Tables back in 2011/2012.

I personally do not believe that the current system is the best system. There are significant flaws in the assessment and appeal process. This would not be acceptable in the public or private sector so why should it be acceptable for the disabled.

Two doctors at Centrelink's Health Professionals Advisory Unit both supported my eligibility for DSP and this report was disregarded by a young psychologist Job Capacity Assessor at Centrelink who was assessing my physical injuries when she cancelled my DSP. This document was not listed in the evidence in the Authorised Review Officer report at Centrelink. Centrelink failed to make this document available to the SSAT until after the hearing and decision had been made even though I had requested it under FOI weeks prior to the hearing and was denied a request for an extension of time to receive it. This document is even noted in the SSAT report as being part of the decision when it is date stamped as arriving at the SSAT two days after the decision. A report written by a high profile doctor who represented Australia at the National Pain Summit was disregarded and even undermined in the SSAT report. In addition to this the AAT was provided with a comprehensive report from an Occupational Physician clearly supporting my eligibility for the Disability Support Pension. The AAT were also provided with the HPAU doctor’s letter clearly supporting eligibility.

All this and then receiving an account for $14,725.14 from Centrelink the day after the AAT affirmed their decision.

Perhaps Kevin Andrews also needs to consider placing independent doctors at the SSAT and AAT hearings and implementing some strict controls over Centrelink reviews.

There is no justice for the disabled in Australia!

justicefordisabled@iinet.net.au

Hasbeen: Brail!
Rhrosty.

Really Rhrosty, a computer produces brail from OLO posts for you to read.

Wonderful.

Hello Readers,

I just wanted to thank you all for your positive feedback on my opinion piece. It is also great to receive encouragement and to hear of other people’s stories.

Thank you too Hasbeen, for illustrating the types of out-dated right wing views that can prevail when vocational training is mistaken for education. And for reminding us that some still understand ‘welfare’ as meaning only income support, whereas it includes many more taxation breaks and other public goods.

I am sure that the English theoretical physicist and cosmologist, Professor Stephen Hawking, would be amused by your suggestion that people who cannot feed themselves would not be able to access this forum.

There are three main reasons as to why people with profound disabilities might not be able to gain and continue in the workforce:

1: The medical conditions. Often people with profound disabilities are just too impaired to be able to work.

2: The built and social environments are not designed for us. While we are slowly changing these by installing ramps into building and educating the community about the various disabilities, unfortunately so much of our world has evolved on the presumption that everybody can walk, talk, drive and etc. People who are unable to do these types of basic tasks are at a significant disadvantage.

3: There is a presumption that unemployment, or under-employment, is the individual’s fault. Full employment takes two to tango. Yes, the individual needing to want to work (and most people with disabilities do), but employers must be willing to want to employ us. Unfortunately, this is rare. Even the Australian Government has halved the number of people with disability it employs over the last decade. Furthermore, employers are reducing their staff: how can we compete with this?

Incidentally, one thing that went unmentioned in my article was that I have not been unemployed since before 1 January 2000, for a number of years I was earning close to six figures, and a few months in 2013 I held three jobs. I too am a tax-payer and have been for many years.

David

What a self-righteous bit of bumph David, you poor dear.

Here is the other side of the story.

I was equipment officer for a sporting club in a country village. We had a pony club, little athletics & a soccer club all sharing the same grounds, forming the club.

A clever bloke arranged for us to be given an old railway house. A local trucking company transported the house, & another small welding company made house stumps for us.

A few working bees had the house installed, & work started on making it a clubhouse, with a canteen, office space, storage area for equipment & toilets. After a major fund raising effort volunteers installed the $17,000 of cable to give us power, & a couple of flood lights for night training.

Toilets were a major problem when soccer carnivals or large sports days were held. A student architect drew up our plans including 3 toilets & a urinal, along with the rest of the fit out.

Then the council advised they had a complaint that we did not have a ramp for disabled to get in, or a disabled toilet.

We started building a ramp with some donated, borrowed & stolen timber, but it was still going to cost $26,000 for it & a landing. The toilet was harder. We could only fit one disabled toilet instead of the three planned. This was insufficient for the soccer club, or little athletics. Then the source of borrowed portable toilets dried up.

It all became too hard. Little athletics moved to another village, 25 kilometer away, the soccer club closed down, as the effort became too much for the few workers, & it all folded.

The horse club use the half done building for storage, & piddle in the bushes I suppose, all because some "disabled" stood on their dignity & demanded what they would never use. Thanks to one of them, 140 kids no longer have sorting activities in our village.

Since then "disabled" is to me a dirty word, & forever will be

Hasbeen how did the Little Athletics manage in the other village? How did the horse/pony club manage to avoid the council in your village without a disabled toilet? Why did the source of portable toilets dry up? Is this really something you can blame the disabled for or did something else happen? Perhaps if you had asked the horse club manager how they got around the problem and persisted a bit more your club would have kept running. One in five Australians are disabled. It would have been highly likely that more than one disabled, (or even aged), person would have visited your club. It is very easy to blame others for lack of success especially those who are in a vulnerable position.

It is usually better to accept responsibility for mistakes/failure to meet challenges and work out what went wrong and strive to do better next time just like successful business people or other clubs do.

What utter rubbish Justice for Disabled, you are only interested in yourself, & it shows.

The little athletics moved to a larger village with existing facilities, & more pull to get council money. It meant about 3/4 of our kids no longer had access to athletics.

Have you ever tried to raise $26,000 in a small community, particularly after having raised $17,000 for the power in the months before? No I thought not. Disabled appear to always have their hand out for taxpayer money.

Then when they realised that even then, another $40,000 would be required for a separate toilet block to fit the disabled toilet, it was too much for the soccer people. They gave up.

The whole thing was not a requirement of the pony club. We had a "long drop" bush toilet, a couple of containers for storage, & a covered area for organisation. We were involved in the work & fund raising because that is what you do in a village.

I am no longer involved, but I see the house has been painted & maintained. There is still a quarter built ramp, & the entrance is up a pile of old railway sleepers. As they don't use the thing, it is nice of the horse people to stop it from deteriorating. Someone may use it some day.

It is also a good edifice to the selfishness of the disabled, who demand everyone else spend money they don't have on things they don't need, or want, just incase some "disabled" wants to use it some time.

Hello Hasbeen

I actually agree with you regarding the toilets and other expensive building modifications.

The anti-discrimination legislation is very clear about setting limits on how much money has to be spent on accommodating the needs people with disabilities.

If we had unlimited funds, then everybody’s needs could be met. But, unfortunately, this isn’t the case. And the law provides rules around how to balance these competing policy positions.

The core notions are reasonableness and financial hardship.

Under the law no one, and no organisation, is expected to spend so much money that it puts them into financial hardship.

I am sorry that your experience of people with disabilities was such a negative one.

I am aware that hardships are not confined to people with disabilities.

If people with disabilities, however, do not advocate for ourselves, authorities will think that we are doing okay and nothing will change. And, there are so many injustices against people with disabilities. For instance, did you know that women with disabilities are three times as likely to experience sexually violence than the rest of the population.

It makes no sense, though, to say that because of one poor experience with a person with a disability all people with disabilities are money-grabbing laze-a-bouts.

Thanks for the conversation.