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Post by Banjo on Jan 13, 2015 8:13:22 GMT 7
Latent work capacity ‘strong’ among people with disability, study shows Rick Morton, The Australian, January 10 2015More than one in five people stripped of disability benefits found work, according to a large study that uncovered strong evidence of “latent work capacity” among people with disability. The George Washington University study, highlighted this month by the University of Melbourne’s Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, analysed the work outcomes of 65,000 people who were taken off disability payments in 1997 after the US congress removed drug and alcohol addiction as an eligibility requirement the year before. It marks the first time a large group of people whose benefits were cancelled have been studied, as other research tends to look only at people whose applications are denied. The research found a 22-percentage-point jump in the number of people earning above the benefit’s work capacity threshold — $US8602 in 2013 dollars — compared with a control group of people who had addictions but who were reclassified and continued receiving disability benefits. The employment effect was strongest in those aged 30 to 39 — a rise of 25 percentage points. “The large employment response among a group who rarely exited DI (disability insurance) prior to the removal of addictions as eligible conditions provides strong evidence of latent work capacity among beneficiaries, even if they had been on the program for several years,” the study says. “DI applicants and beneficiaries have incentives to understate their true work capacity in order to gain or maintain their program eligibility.” disabilityemployment.org.au/news/item/2337/
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Post by Banjo on Jan 13, 2015 8:15:22 GMT 7
No mention of how much the crime rate went up when 65,000 addicts were taken off the disability benefits.
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Post by mikey on Jan 13, 2015 8:37:54 GMT 7
Here's the rest of that article where the The Australian then links it to our social security system.
The federal government began new measures last January, under which all new Disability Support Pension applicants are reviewed by a commonwealth-approved doctor and reviews held of all recipients younger than 35, which has led to thousands being sent to employment services to find work. Last year the government changed the impairment tables for the DSP, applying tougher entry requirements to all applicants and anyone subject to a medical review from January 2012.
The US research backs the government’s position on medical assessments, indicating “judgments about the severity of disabilities may not hold over time”.
Although the study examined those with addictions, some subgroups included people with mental illness, a fact that has large implications for the Australian system where psychosocial disabilities account for both the fastest growing and largest proportion of DSP claimants. There are more than 800,000 DSP recipients in Australia, one-third of whom cite a psychosocial disability as their primary disability.
People with Disability president Craig Wallace said Australia needed a rich data source tracking employment among the disabled. “I’m not convinced that we have any evidence that cancelling benefits for any of the cohorts in the impairment tables is a route to employment,” Mr Wallace said.
Social Services Minister Scott Morrison said he was focused on restoring “integrity, dignity and sustainability” to the system. “All those who can work and be more self-sufficient should be doing just that,” Mr Morrison said.
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Post by Banjo on Jan 13, 2015 9:13:13 GMT 7
Thanks, I get no free access to The Australian at all.
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Post by mikey on Jan 13, 2015 9:18:27 GMT 7
I get access via the Tasmanian library website. But you need to be a be member of the library and it's only practical on a pc.
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Post by Banjo on Jan 13, 2015 9:51:31 GMT 7
Thanks, I'll check it out.
They have stuff that comes up on my Google Alerts that I like to see occasionally but I refuse to pay for it.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jan 13, 2015 11:32:41 GMT 7
So they are using some totally outdated American survey from 1997 before the world economic crash , that has nothing to do with Australia to try to justify kicking people off the DSP here in Australia, they must know that all the relevant Australian surveys do not support what they want to do, so is desperation they dig up some old American survey. They said one in five people stripped of their disability pension found work, what happened to the four in five, the park bench?
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Post by mulloway on Jan 13, 2015 13:28:30 GMT 7
Good point, what happened to the 4/5 that didn't get jobs. A 20% success rate in any endeavour is a failure. How many of them turned to crime out of desperation. Did some of them enter the prison system and there by costing the state even more. Addiction and substance abuse issues are very complex and the medical/legal professions have to a large extent failed in their ability to solve these problem ....
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Post by mikey on Jan 13, 2015 14:11:22 GMT 7
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Post by Denis-NFA on Jan 14, 2015 0:35:10 GMT 7
Thanks for that mikey, I think we can put you in charge of the DSPoverseas Research Department. I had a brief look at that paper, which only came out December 31, 2013, and just highlight a few things, 1. There is no occurrence or mention of the term “latent work capacity” at all; 2. The author of the paper is arguing, in the context of USA Disability Insurance arrangements, that DI is beneficial for people over a period of time; 3. The author pointed out that the 22% that gained employment diminished within 4 years. I didn't dig through his figures to see what it diminished to; 4. From what I could determine the other 4 out of 5 people that were removed under the drug and alcohol dependence criteria were either eligible for DI under another criteria or were given some other form of support. There are other facts contained in the report and some other forum member might like to trawl through the paper (pdf, 44 pages, 473 KB ) but essentially the Australian article is another News Ltd smear of DSP recipients. PS Rick Morton, the author of the article in the Australian, is on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.
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Post by Denis-NFA on Jan 14, 2015 0:37:50 GMT 7
So they are using some totally outdated American survey from 1997 before the world economic crash , that has nothing to do with Australia to try to justify kicking people off the DSP here in Australia, they must know that all the relevant Australian surveys do not support what they want to do, so is desperation they dig up some old American survey. They said one in five people stripped of their disability pension found work, what happened to the four in five, the park bench? Good point @frugle re the other 4 out of 5 but check point 4 in my post above.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 14, 2015 7:12:56 GMT 7
It is indeed a shame that further investigation did not occur regarding the ongoing history of those taken off dsp. As suggested here, it might be a case of them robbing peter to pay paul so to speak. If there was a surge above average figures for these people, then most assuredly it would be a useless exercise. Latest figures I read is over $100k p.a. for a guest of Her Majesty. Would not take many to wipe out the so called 'savings'
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Post by Banjo on Jan 14, 2015 8:44:34 GMT 7
Thanks, I'll check it out. They have stuff that comes up on my Google Alerts that I like to see occasionally but I refuse to pay for it. Damn I have 4 library cards and they have all expired. Just trying to renew online.
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