Back to work: Disability support pension on the scrapheap SAMANTHA MAIDEN HERALD SUN JUNE 28, 2014 11:00PM AUSTRALIA’S disability support pension would be abolished for anyone not suffering a permanent disability under proposed Government reforms. The McClure Report into welfare will recommend all other disability pension recipients be moved to a new, temporary “working age entitlement” in a move that is expected to force many thousands into the workforce. “My concern is that for too long, many people get on to a DSP and then government tends to forget about them,” Federal Social Services Minister Kevin Andrews said. Warning the nation’s welfare system is a complex mess of payments, supplements and confusing income tests, welfare expert Patrick McClure will outline sweeping changes in a report commissioned by the Federal Government. Mr Andrews said he was concerned the disability support pension had become a “set and forget” payment. “I have asked Mr McClure to look at what can be done to simplify the welfare system and get those with a capacity to work back into the jobs market,” he said. The McClure report includes calls for tax reform for all Australians, warning the interaction of personal income tax and means-tested welfare payments can reduce rewards for working and diminish incentive to work. For the disabled, he suggests a new working age payment for people who have some capacity to work and bridge the gap between the DSP that pays people more than the dole. The report calls for the DSP to be quarantined as “only for people with a permanent impairment”. “People with disability who have current or future capacity to work could be assisted through the tiered working age payment to better reflect different work capacities,’’ the report states. “Within the working age payment, different tiers of payment could take account of individual circumstances, such as partial capacity to work, parental responsibilities or limitations on availability for work because of caring. “Recipients of higher rates could include single parents, people with disability and a partial capacity to work, and others with a significant barrier to full-time employment.” Crucially, the report also suggests adjustments to family payments can be justified on the grounds of extra assistance being provided under the new paid parental leave scheme and in the case of the DSP, the new National Disability Insurance Scheme. heraldsun.au/news/back-to-work-disability-support-pension-on-the-scrapheap/story-fni0fiyv-1226970140880?nk=221b39dec6020ab96297d59650c3a6fb
Posted on: Sun, 29 Jun 2014 02:20:00 +0000
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