An open letter to Julia re Dignity

Dear Prime Minister

I am so pleased you have rediscovered the “dignity of work”. I actually agree with you that it is important to help non-working people to work to their capacity – whatever that is. I think where we differ is on how to do that. Also, given the lack of detail and the abject failure of previous attempts at reform, I’m not convinced that your government has the knowledge or political will to do it either. So please allow me to offer you my ideas for what they are worth, as I believe I am amply qualified to offer advice in this area.

Firstly by training I am an Occupational Therapist with 25+ years experience in the workforce, so I have some knowledge, skills and experience in this area. Secondly I am a disabled person. I have had Chronic Fatigue Syndrome for 20 years and despite my best efforts along with the pathetic non-efforts of the CES, DEN and JSA – I do work. I can work 15 hours per week on a sustainable basis. Attempts to extend this have not been sustainable. Thirdly, I have done additional training and recently completed my Masters in Counselling, which involved extra hours over four years. The impact has been a substantial worsening of my physical capacity and increased pain which is only now starting to abate some nine months later. I now also have a FEE-HELP debt I will probably never be able to repay. Fourthly – for the past nine years, I have worked with the disadvantaged community. I am presently providing mental health services under the Better Access to Mental Health program. Thankfully your government reversed its foolish plan which would have seen me once more unemployed. Hopefully you can see that I know what I am talking about here.

In planning a successful “dignity of work” program, there are many things you must consider. I know you have been told these things already. I’m just asking you to exchange populist rhetoric for listening to people who know the truth, because they live it every day.

For people with disabilities – the biggest problem is the unwillingness of employers to provide suitable, quality work which matches the disabled applicant’s abilities. Just ask the Productivity Commission. Quality part-time work is almost impossible to obtain. So people with disabilities are often faced with the prospect of low paid, low quality jobs that do not utilise their skills and productive capacity because employers think that people looking for part-time work are lazy, uncommitted or that their inability to be instantly available will somehow cripple the company. If they were employed to their capacity and well remunerated some could be independent of benefits, but most will never get this opportunity because of employer prejudice.

Many disabilities, like mine, along with musculoskeletal and mental health conditions require intermittent work – that is longer or more frequent rest breaks. Again, employees seeking these things are viewed negatively as lazy. Such opportunities are extremely rare. Asking for them at interview is a recipe for rejection. Attempting to negotiate them upon success is just as risky. I had a job offer withdrawn when I asked for a rearrangement of hours. That was with a Job Network Provider – the organisations skilled in “helping us”.

Regarding the long term unemployed – you are well aware of the literacy, numeracy and mental health issues. However your government seems to have little to offer beyond the usual literacy and numeracy programs that have already failed due to the failure to diagnose and treat unrecognised learning and mental health disorders. By the time these people hit the welfare system, they often have further problems with addictions which seem to travel hand in hand with these disorders.

People with mental health conditions are frequently undiagnosed or wrongly diagnosed and often symptoms of their conditions include a lack of insight and mistrust of the very people who could diagnose and help them. It is not shirking or non-compliance. It is a symptom, just like high blood sugar or blood pressure. Eighty percent of the people I work with report a history of childhood or adult trauma and abuse – often both. Even when they are undergoing treatment and have been diagnosed, their encounters with Centrelink and JSA are often traumatic. Foolish attempts at forcing compliance often re-traumatise them and are a barrier to therapists addressing their core problems. Inflexible policy aimed at enforcing compliance actually produces the opposite. Even when they can access suitable treatment (and BAMH has been a boon), program frameworks often limit the amount of treatment or time frame available, which again impacts most on those who are more disadvantaged and severely affected.

So please allow me the indulgence of making a few suggestions that might address these realities.

1)      Apply both the carrot and the stick to employers. Offer them incentives to employ disabled people and to employ people part-time. Offer a tax break to all companies that achieve a specific target. Start with Federal and State Government agencies. If you really believe this works – start doing it and lead by example. Use tax penalties for medium to large enterprises that fail to achieve targets for employing disabled or long-term unemployed workers.

2)      Use carrots for the unemployed. Since DSP is so luxurious – offer the unemployed the benefits of DSP as long as they are engaged in meaningful efforts to improve their work prospects. That removes the incentive to “get on DSP” by “proving disability”. If education, training and treatment really improve employment outcomes – this will save money in the medium-term. Trying to live on NSA is enough stick for anyone. Allow people on benefits to experience reward for effort (rather than just the avoidance of penalty).

3)      Allow all people with temporary or uncertain disability the same conditions as (2) – although for temporary or uncertain disability the emphasis will be more on assessment and treatment.

4)      Provide generous resources so that people with disabilities can access assessment and treatment IMMEDIATELY. Even when services are available, long waiting lists and gap fees often exclude those most in need from accessing the needed assessment and treatment.

5)      Revise the funding model to provide benefits to JSA’s who employ highly skilled and qualified caseworkers and pay them commensurately with their skills. Allow them to provide appropriate therapeutic services for mental health and substance issues when there are limited or inadequate local services available.

6)      Fund or develop enterprises along a “work co-operative” model in order to provide skilled, flexible work for people with disabilities. Give those enterprises a good chance of success by feeding them a steady supply of outsourced government contract work. This type of enterprise would be highly suited for those with intermittent work requirements as work could be pooled. Such enterprises should also be more open to teleworking – again highly suited to those requiring intermittent work. One possible work such enterprises could be contracted to do is the monitoring of target and incentive programs mentioned above. Allow the disabled to apply the stick to recalcitrant, social responsibility avoiding employers.

7)      If a person with or with or without a disability has been unable despite their best efforts to obtain suitable employment within two years, then exempt them from explicit paid employment seeking if they are willing to engage in the equivalent voluntary work or community service.

8)      Exempt clients with suspected serious mental disability from compliance requirements without the burden of immediate proof. Offer them the same incentives as (2). Allow GP’s, mental health workers or carers to report such concerns. Fund Centrelink or JSA’s to provide outreach workers whose task it is to seek to engage, case-manage and refer such clients. Give such caseworkers the power to make decisions, without prejudice or financial incentive regarding compliance or exemption measures.

9)      No one should be compelled to undertake Work for the Dole for less than the minimum wage equivalent.

10)  Reform the basket cases that are Centrelink and DOCS. Make the form letters readable, human and compassionate. Only employ staff in “contact” positions with well developed people skills. Do not penalise customers for their inability to comprehend Centrelink requirements when staff at all levels seem to be unable to do so consistently.

11)  Broaden the range of treatments available under Medicare or case management for mental health conditions – particularly for trauma, PTSD and personality disorders.

If you do this, you will have the beginnings of a compassionate, responsive welfare system that respects and develops the dignity of the disabled and disadvantaged. I thought that was what the Labor Party stood for?

I would be interested in meeting with you or a representative to discuss these measures. However given that you have already been told this by Anglicare, NCOSS, The Brotherhood of St Lawrence, St Vincent De Paul and many others, I’m frankly not optimistic.

I could even be part of your solution if you are willing to employ a disabled person for 15 hours per week who requires some flexibility. What I actually expect is that I and many others like me will be whipped, penalised and subjected to even worse poverty by a government that pretends to care about the dignity of work.

Please prove me wrong.

Ken Davis

$1bn cut from disabled, parents' welfare - National - theage.com.au

$1bn cut from disabled, parents' welfare - National - theage.com.au: "THE Government will slash $1 billion from welfare to single parents and the disabled over the next three years, it has confirmed just before the start of its new Welfare to Work regime today."

Make no mistake, the Government is spending $37 billion dollars on tax cuts for the rich, while robbing the poor. There is no need for these cuts which will create a deeper poverty trap for 150,000 Australians. The Government not only has the capacity to reduce poverty, but also the capacity to make a difference.

Instead, John Coward has chosen the path of poor bashing, and shown his true colours. The tragedy is that the Labour party has been silent in speaking out for the poor, instead focusing it's energy on bribing "middle Australia".

There is a way to make a difference, but neither major party has the political will or guts to claw back money from the rich to improve the situation of the poor by training, affordable education and bribing greedy employers to do what is morally and socially right.

The Australian: Mike Steketee: Built-in contradictions [December 01, 2005]

Mike Steketee from the Australian highlights the contradictions built into the IR and Welfare Reform.

Moreover, the closer wage levels come to government benefits, the smaller will be the incentive to take jobs. Although this should not be a serious barrier for people to move into full-time work, because their incomes will rise substantially, it could be a real factor for the many who can only pick up casual or part-time jobs.

Even the welfare-to-work legislation has contradictory incentives. In future, people with disabilities assessed as being able to work as few as 15 hours a week will no longer qualify for disability support pensions. Instead they will go on to Newstart if they do not get a job, and face a cut in income of $46 a week or more, depending on their circumstances. Single parents whose youngest child turns eight will face a similar situation, with cuts in their income of at least $29 a week. These are the sticks designed to make people look seriously for jobs.

Of course, who are the people who will be seeking part time work because they are UNABLE to work full-time. Who is it who will be forced into low paid jobs? It is people with disabilities. Instead of workplace justice for people with disabilities, we will continue to face limited choices, ongoing abuse and discrimination, and now Howard's big stick.

The Australian: Welfare changes 'won't save money' [November 24, 2005]

As one of those people the Government has done nothing to help, and is planning on doing nothing to help, I fully agree with the following quote.

"'Despite the Howard Government complaining for years about the 'problem' of having 700,000 people stuck on the disability support pension, it has admitted that its plans do nothing to help them into work,' said Labor family and community services spokesman Chris Evans. 'These 700,000 Australians have been abandoned by the Government, with officials today confirming that the Government's package provides no new assistance to help those who want to work.'"

What would really help is providing incentives (bribes) to employers to employ people like me, and providing structural incentives to promote part-time work, especially in Gobernment Positions. Hats off to DEWR who have done this in thier recent advertisements.

I hope when they actually make decisions that they WILL employ some disabled people who can only work part time.

Devil in detail deprives disabled of welfare - National - smh.com.au

lthough the Government has consistently said people would have to look for 15 hours of work a week, a parliamentary inquiry into the new system heard yesterday that people could be required to work up to 25 hours a week.

'There is no upper hours, part-time work limit in the legislation,' the executive director of the National Welfare Rights Network, Michael Raper, told the inquiry.

'If they refuse a suitable job offer of up to 25 hours a week when they are working at, say, 13 hours a week, they can be hit with an immediate eight-week no-payment penalty and will lose in excess of $2000 [in welfare payments].'"

ACOSS and the New Regime

“ACOSS supports the Government’s goal of transitioning more people into work but urge all Members of Parliament to amend the welfare package to ensure rules are applied fairly and no one is left financially worse off.”

I fully support the following ACOSS statement.

“We know that one of the main pathways out of poverty is secure employment. However, areas that are job-rich are often the most expensive to live and many jobless people have a low level of experience and skills with which to find work.”

“These barriers to work that people with disabilities and single parents have are not those that can be solved by changes to payment rules. The payments system must be part of assistance to ensure that single parents and people with disabilities have access to appropriate education, training and support so they can get jobs in today’s economy.”

What is needed is real, positive, affirmative action to tear down the barriers and attitudes that block the disabled from getting a job. A DEWR employee told me that their own modelling shows 98% of a disabled person's chances of getting work are beyond their control once they are disabled.

If the Government wants to focus on ability, it must lead the way in providing positions suited for people with disabilities.

The Advertiser: Rural areas 'lose out' on welfare [26oct05]

"'ACOSS figures are biased and can never be trusted, as has been seen time and again over the last 12 months. Unfortunately, this undermines the credibility of ACOSS's argument,' he said in a statement.

'I don't share ACOSS's view that people who have a capacity to work are better off on welfare rather than in a job.

'There are thousands of people who will be infinitely better off under the Government's $3.6 billion investment in employment services and support.'"

My Comment

OK folks, do the maths. As far as I can see, no-one will be infinitely better off. Some may be 5-10% better off. So is it ACOSS figures we can't trust, or the Government?

Disabled people stopped from working

Discrimination and inflexible workplaces are preventing disabled people from working, a new report shows.

The report, commissioned by the Department of Family and Community Services (FaCS), has found most disabled people would like to work part-time, but think it is unlikely employers will give them the flexibility they need.

They also say that Centrelink is largely unhelpful and that moving from the Newstart Allowance - when they are required to look for work - onto the Disability Support Pension (DSP) is a great relief.

'Most felt that they would be able to cope with formal part-time employment if employers were more flexible,' the report's authors said.

'This would involve employers taking account of their disability and allowing them to rest during the day when they needed to and to take whole days off when they could not contemplate going to work,' they said."

Comment

Its not rocket science is it? I hear this report from motivated people I interview every day I work. The problem is employer attitude.

The Australian: Retro sting in dole reforms [October 03, 2005]

The Australian: Retro sting in dole reforms [October 03, 2005]: "THE Howard Government will further toughen 'three strikes and you're out' dole rules by including in the tally mistakes by unemployed people made during the 12 months before the changes are brought in.

The decision means many people on the dole could face two months without money as soon as the Government's welfare reforms start next July."

My Comment

Now what about if we apply the three strikes rule to Centrelink and pollies. Centrelink make three mistakes and all welfare recipients get a weeks extra payment. If pollies mislead parliament or fail to answer the actual question asked in question time and they forfeit their seat.

Would that be fair?

Disabled to wait for benefits - National Breaking News - Breaking News 24/7 - NEWS.com.au

Disabled to wait for benefits - National Breaking News - Breaking News 24/7 - NEWS.com.au: "DISABLED and sole parent jobseekers with savings will have to wait an average of more than two months for their benefits from next July, welfare advocates say.
In a new twist in the debate surrounding the Government's controversial welfare-to-work package, the National Welfare Rights Network (NWRN) has discovered people will lose a week's worth of benefits for every $1000 over $2500 they have in savings."

Comment

Isn't it good to know that the Governments reward for those who heeded it's advice to save for the future is to take it back.

Publications - NATSEM

Here is the truth about the Howard Government's proposed "Welfare to Work" initiatives, aimed at increasing the opportunities and incentives for people with a disability:

The Government’s proposed welfare to work reforms will not directly affect the disposable income or effective marginal tax rates (EMTRs) of those Australians who are already in receipt of Disability Support Pension (DSP) on 1 July 2006 and who remain on that payment.

However, those persons with disabilities who begin receiving income support after 1 July 2006 will be placed on Newstart Allowance if they are assessed as being able to work 15 to 29 hours a week at award wages. The Newstart Allowance maximum payment rate for single adults in 2006-07 is $46 a week lower than that of DSP, resulting in an immediate loss of this amount of income for those placed on Newstart Allowance rather than DSP. The gap between DSP and Newstart Allowance will increase further in future years, as DSP is indexed to movements in average weekly earnings, while Newstart Allowance is indexed to the (generally lower) Consumer Price Index. As a result, by 2009-10, for example, the maximum payment rate for Newstart Allowance for single adults will be about $224, some $68 lower than the $292 payable for DSP (rather than the $46 a week gap apparent for 2006-07.)

The Newstart Allowance income test is also much less generous than the DSP income test, and its payment is also less than that of the DSP. Taken together, these mean that the losses in take-home income can be as high as $122 a week for single people with disabilities and around $390 per week of private earnings who are placed on Newstart Allowance rather than DSP. People with disabilities placed on Newstart Allowance are more than $100 a week worse off when their private incomes range between $196 and $448, relative to the payments they receive under the current system. These reductions in income amount to a 25 to 27 per cent cut in income when private incomes range from $196 to $400 a week.

The Facts - How many will be robbed

Question:Senator Wong asked at Hansard page 49:
How many people who would previously have been on the DSP will be on enhanced Newstart under the Welfare Reform package?

Answer:
The estimated costs of the Welfare to Work package included, amongst other things, the impact of the following number of people who would have been on DSP, but will instead be on Newstart Allowance, as a result of the Welfare to Work package:

• 34,400 in 2006-07;
• 57,900 in 2007-08; and
• 75,700 in 2008-09.

These costing estimates include people who will be granted DSP between 11 May 2005 and 30 June 2006 and will be reviewed with some (those with 15-29 hours per week capacity) transferring to Newstart Allowance as a result of the review process.

These estimates represent annual average impacts for the relevant year, and have been rounded to the nearest 100.

workplace.gov.au - Survey of New Disability Support Pension Customers - Executive Summary

workplace.gov.au - Survey of New Disability Support Pension Customers - Executive Summary: "Participants who were not currently working but with future work intentions or the potential to work in the future were asked a question regarding factors that they would consider before accepting an appropriate position. The three most common factors identified by the 418 respondents were:

* location or distance from home
* pay or salary
* employer flexibility (includes flexibility in relation to hours and days worked as well as work-from-home options).


Participants were also asked about the advantages and disadvantages of working. The most common advantages identified were:

* more money/income
* improve self confidence/self esteem/state of mind
* social contact.

The most common disadvantage of working identified by both groups was that of potential problems with physical and/or mental health."

Comment

This report confirms the truth behind what people with disabilities have been saying for years. We want to work, but we don't want to be forced to do it in a way that jeopardises our health, our psyche and our families. Does that make us bludgers?

Easy way to send letters to your Local Member

A C O S S Website by Webit: "Tell your local MP that you care in 3 quick steps

This year Parliament will consider legislation on payments for the poorest Australians. This includes rules that mean after July 2006 up to 300,000 people could have less money to live on. Take action online now in three quick steps and tell your Member of Parliament that you care about jobless people."

Just click on the heading above to go to the ACOSS Action page.

The Epoch Times | Welfare Groups Question Federal Government’s Reforms

“We have said all along, and will continue to say, that if the nature of your disability is such that you cannot support yourself through work, then the Disability Support Pension will be there for you...[But] the community, including those with disabilities themselves, has a low level of tolerance for people who exaggerate the impact of their injury or illness and try and get onto the pension as the easy option.”

More Lies

Dutton says that 15 hours per week of work is sufficient to support yourself. I'd like to see him try. If you can work 15 hours per week, but can't compete in the job market, then you will be plunged onto Newstart, not DSP. The DSP is NOT available to those unable to support themselves.

Welfare to Work Forum

A Disability & Participation Alliance Forum
“Welfare to Work” & Disability

An opportunity to consult with

Senator Penny Wong
Shadow Minister for Employment
and Workplace Participation

When: 4-6pm
23 August 2005

Where: Uniting Church Meeting Room
Ground Floor
130 Little Collins St
Melbourne

RSVP by Wednesday 17 August 2005
Telephone: 03 9662 3324
TTY: 03 9662 3325
Email: collette.oneill@afdo.org.au

Please indicate any disability related needs, eg, need for a sign interpreter. The venue is wheelchair accessible.

The Australian: Decline in men on disability pension [July 19, 2005]

Howard tells more porkies

David Uren, Economics correspondent
July 19, 2005

THE number of men claiming disability pensions has stopped growing for the first time in 20 years, but this has been offset by a surge in the number of claims from older women.

Research by the federal parliamentary library disproves a widely held belief that the meteoric growth in disability pensions has been driven by older men dropping out of the workforce before they were eligible for the old age pension.

The portion of men aged 60 to 64 on the disability pension has dropped from 25.3 to 21.5 per cent over the past seven years, while the number of men aged 50 to 59 on the disability pension has fallen from 11.5 to 10.2 per cent."

Comment

Just goes to show that the government's comments about DSP are fiction. And why are there more women? Probably because as women have entered the work force, they experience the poor conditions, and unhealthy demands pushed by a "productivity culture".

Australians too retiring: OECD - National - theage.com.au

"The study also finds Australian men of prime working age have the second highest jobless rate of all 30 member nations in the OECD.

Perhaps because Australian employers are bastards?

In a wide-ranging reform blueprint, the organisation urges the Federal Government to let people earn more part-time income while still claiming the aged pension.

This is a no-brainer.

It also advocates even tougher rules for older people on welfare benefits - including more work requirements for unemployed people over 55.

I support this, but you have to start with employers. They're the mongrels who block older, disabled people from getting jobs. They use any excuse to sack older workers so they can employ someone younger and cheaper. Most people I assess for DSP want to work. Over half have a horror story about how they were forced into early "retirement" by bastard bosses.

And, in a bid to stop the disability support pension being used as an early retirement scheme, it wants older applicants to face the same tough medical eligibility tests as everyone else.

Despite the Government's pre-budget decision to exempt the existing 700,000 disability pensioners from harsher work tests, the OECD says all recipients should be forced to look for a job if they can work for 15 hours or more a week."

Agreed - but you have to make the definition of 15 hours per week reasonable. How about forcing employers to provide part-time work. Have you looked in the paper to see how many part-time jobs are advertised? Pompous ivory tower academics make these ridiculous pronouncements with no concept of what it's actually like in the real world.

Yesterday I assessed a 57 year old man with multiple injuries who wanted to work, who had actually been an employment consultant in Job Network. He trained people for the Mature Workers Program. He cannot get a job. His Job Network provider has decided not to fund the final semester of his TAFE course.

Here is a man doing all the right things - being screwed by a pathetic system. Shame Johnny.

'Welfare to work' melting under spotlight

Penny Wong

Labor Senator for South Australia
Shadow Minister for Employment and Workforce Participation,
Corporate Governance and Responsibility

Sunday 19 June, 2005

In the last week of parliamentary sittings, Labor will highlight that
the Howard Government's so-called welfare to work package is a shambles that won't improve workforce participation.

"Since the Budget, Labor and independent experts have shone a spotlight on the Howard Government's incompetent scheme and found that it fails its own basic test of moving people from welfare to work," Shadow Employment Minister Senator Wong said today.

"Under the Howard Government's confused scheme, there will be less incentive to move into work because workers will lose more of what they earn."

Treasury confirmed this fact at Senate Estimates hearings, and last week the respected Melbourne Institute agreed:

The effect of on labour supply of these measures is ambiguous... Relatively less can be gained from employment due to the higher benefit withdrawal rates when earning additional income.

In addition, the Treasurer's claim that 190,000 people will move from welfare to work has been completely discredited.

"At estimates, Treasury revealed that it expected that no current
Disability Support Pension recipients would move into work at all. And now the Melbourne Institute is projecting that only 45,000 people will move from welfare to work.

"Add these revelations to the chorus of concern raised by church groups and the news that Job Network agencies are threatening to walk from the system, and it is clear that the 'welfare to work' scheme is decomposing before our eyes.

"Welfare reform was the opportunity for Australia to ask welfare
recipients to help address the chronic skills shortage - but that
opportunity has been wasted with no major investment in the skills of welfare recipients.

"The Howard Government's process for developing this scheme was chaotic, the results have been disastrous - and vulnerable families and disabled Australians will pay the price.

"After nine long years of talk on welfare reform, the Howard Government is just moving vulnerable Australians from one welfare payment to a lower welfare payment. Labor will be calling the Government to account for this cruel scam when the last parliamentary sitting week for the session begins tomorrow."

For further information - John Olenich 0408 841 850

Call to rethink disability reform

By GABRIELLE DUNLEVY - Illawarra Mercury June 11, 2005.

A KOONAWARRA man has started, a petition against changes to the Disability Support Pension which he claims will disadvantage and discriminate against people with a disability, rather than encourage them into work.

Ken Davis, both a recipient of the pension and an occupational therapist who assesses people for the pension, believes the changes come out of ignorance.

Under the Federal Government's "welfare to work" reforms, from July 1 next year people able to do 15 hours of part time work would no longer he entitled to the pension and would be moved Newstart allowance.

They would have to meet job search requirements and would be $44 per week worse off, Mr Davis said.

As most people with disabilities wanted to work, he believed the Government should give employers an incentive to hire them.

“Because of the job I do part-time is to assess people with a disability, I can see first hand that the Government’s claims about these people are not true...the characterisation of people on the disability support pension as malingerers”, he said. “The most serious misconception is what it takes for a disabled person to find real employment that does not aggravate their condition.”

Mr Davis said the idea that people with back injuries could easily find part-time office work was an example of this – often office work could make their condition worse.

“They (the Government) really have a poor understanding of people with disabilities. What I am hoping is there will be enough signatures to get some attention and that it might motivate both people with a disability and people around them to get on board with the political process and try and make a difference.”

Mr Davis said his was not the only campaign against the pension reforms. The Australian Federation of Disability Organisations has launched Campaign Enable to coerce the Government to replace its “unfair” policies with a practical national employment strategy for those with a disability.

Mr Davis’ petition is at www.life-directions.net/dsp.php