Australia's welfare system is broken

[latindancer]

Thanks for your good wishes,Banker. I don't take anti-depressants though, as I have heard of too many bad side effects, and when you stop taking them it's difficult too.

To return to the subject of people getting back into the workforce, I think that more training and support are definitely needed. I am on the __highest level of suppport__ with my Disability Jobsearch agency, but I still had to pay $500 for half the total cost of getting my security licence, and ANOTHER $500 ...._ALL_ the cost ....of getting my traffic controllers licence. Though they did pay $50 for something to do with it, and previously paid for work boots and pants, plus a couple of petrol vouchers. Basically I had to spend all my meagre savings from having lived in very poor accomodation, and letting my 28 year old car get really run down.
There is a very old-fashioned expression to describe this : "pulling oneself up by one's own bootstraps". I feel like I have had to somehow levitate myself by pulling upwards on my feet. It's been that hard. People like me can't magically change with a little support from the government, we need more.....and it needs to be creative and inspired.
(Quieten down...I can hear your bitter mocking laughter from here)

However we also run into another HUGE barrier : getting into the actual workforce. Actually winning a job. At 57, although I look very presentable, people have been reluctant to hire me. Even Bunnings Hardware, despite my having a lot of handyman experience.
It's rather like getting a spacecraft into orbit. If you actually get into orbit it's great. But until you do, after putting in a huge amount of energy or effort you're always falling back to earth ....sometimes spectacularly and catastrophically.

[Banker]

L.D I might be able to get you a job as a traffic controller in Phnom Penh, or would you prefer Sukhumvit Rd. Nana.....

[Banjo]

Fedup, the rules and legislation on the DSP have changed over the years, back in the 90s/early 2000s governments pushed people onto the DSP to make the dole figures look good.

Sure they could have been rehabilitated and retrained but the cheaper option was to put them on the DSP to make the unemployment figures look better at election time.

I don't see this as entitlement, I see it as the manipulation of vulnerable people by unscrupulous politicians.
Stiff shit we're on the DSP now and most of us are too old and too long out of the workforce to ever get a job even if we could work.

[fedup]

@ Banjo,I understand all that,and the comment about people here was directed at the article in relation to the broken article.

I still stand by what I said in relation to DSP requirements,basically if you are over 35 ,there is no participation required.

If you have a permenant impairment over 20 pts in one scale you have a severe impairment

CITW of two years / five years whatever,you should not be expected to work

This 15hr rule really targets those under 35

And what is their definition of minimum wage?

Here have another headache

www.fairwork.gov.au/employment/employees-with-disability/pages/special-national-minimum-wage-for-employees-with-disability.aspx

[Banjo]

The link is interesting but the headache is not that it is inherently unfair, but that it is open to abuse by employers.
For decades... centuries... employers have been abusing the disabled on payday.
The problem is not with these rules but who will be enforcing them and how.


Special national minimum wage for employees with disability

There are 2 special national minimum wages for employees with disability who are not covered by an award or agreement.

Disability that doesn’t affect work

Special National Minimum Wage 1 is for employees whose disability doesn’t affect the way they can do their job.

They must get at least $606.40 per week (before tax), or $15.96 per hour.
Disability that does affect work

Special National Minimum Wage 2 is for employees with a disability that does affect the way they can do their job.

They get a percentage of Special National Minimum Wage 1 (see above).

The percentage is based on ‘assessed productive capacity’. For example, someone with a capacity of 70% would get 70% of Special National Minimum Wage 1 (ie. 70% of $15.96 per hour).

This only applies if the employee:

can’t work at a certain level because their disability affects their productivity
meets the impairment criteria for a Disability Support Pension
has been properly assessed by the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations External link icon.

[Banker]

Disability payments numbers on the rise

THE number of Queenslanders on a disability support pension continues to climb, with almost 163,000 people now receiving payments.

In February, there were 162,956 people in Queensland receiving the DSP, up from 159,960 last June and 138,759 in June 2008.

Advocacy groups say more must be done to help people with disabilities make the transition to the workplace.

Their calls came after Mission Australia chief executive Toby Hall described the Government's welfare system as "broken", and singled out the hundreds of thousands of Australians on the DSP.

Disability Reform Minister Jenny Macklin yesterday argued that while the DSP had expanded by 280 per cent nationally over the past three decades, the number of recipients had dropped for the first time since October 2006.

As of February, 824,082 Australians were on the DSP, down from 831,908 in December 2011.

But People With Disability Australia president Craig Wallace said a slight decline in numbers was not good enough.

"Staying on the (DSP) leads you into a life of poverty. It's not a lot of money and we should be doing everything that we can to support people to get into employment," Mr Wallace said, adding that he had encountered people who had been knocked back for "hundreds" of jobs.

Between March 2010 and February this year, more than 35,000 Queenslanders found employment through the government-funded Disability Employment Services.

Ms Macklin said the Government had removed the cap on access to Disability Employment Services while making it tougher to apply for the DSP.

Read more: www.couriermail.com.au/national-news/queensland/disability-payments-numbers-on-the-rise/story-fndo4ckr-1226615275003#ixzz2PvJexD19