Post by Denis-NFA on Mar 5, 2014 13:17:19 GMT 7
There is an interesting article over at the ABC's The Drum written by Greg Jericho that is titled as above.
It's a tad long to quote in full here but it is probably worth while checking out and the comments..
www.abc.net.au/news/2014-03-05/jericho-disability-support-pension/5297540
Just to give an idea I got these quotes,
There is a lot more.
It's a tad long to quote in full here but it is probably worth while checking out and the comments..
www.abc.net.au/news/2014-03-05/jericho-disability-support-pension/5297540
Just to give an idea I got these quotes,
The record number of people receiving disability support seems alarming ... until you take into account Australia's growing and ageing population, writes Greg Jericho.
The Abbott Government is very much focussed on growth; equality doesn't get much of a look in. Indeed, rare is the Sunday that goes by without a drop given to a journalist to put out some pap about lazy people on unemployment benefits or about the record number of people on the disability support pension (DSP).
This past weekend, the government flew a test balloon about merging to an extent Newstart and the DSP.
This past weekend, the government flew a test balloon about merging to an extent Newstart and the DSP.
The DSP has been clearly targeted by the Government and its media supporters. There has been much made of the fact that now a "record 832,000 Australians receive the DSP". Such a figure sounds impressive, unless you pause to give it some context about how our population is also at "record levels". But context just gets in the way when you're trying to convince voters that people are out there living in the high hog on your taxpayer dollars, taking home up to $751 a fortnight ($19,544 a year).
A look at the number of DSP recipients as a percentage of the working age population shows that since 2002 there has been a slight increase - from just over 5 per cent to now just under 5.5 per cent.
And the increase is nothing like that observed during the 1990s:
A look at the number of DSP recipients as a percentage of the working age population shows that since 2002 there has been a slight increase - from just over 5 per cent to now just under 5.5 per cent.
And the increase is nothing like that observed during the 1990s:
And far from the growth of those on DSP being out of control, in 2012, the nominal annual growth of DSP recipients was down near that observed in 2005 and 2006. But when observing DSP numbers as a percentage of the working age population, the number of people on DSP fell in 2012 - the first time since 2007.
There is a lot more.
