Canberra, Australia
— A NEW trial program aimed at encouraging disabled
pensioners to return to the workforce could ultimately
save taxpayers' money, acting Prime Minister John
Anderson said today.
The Government today unveiled the
$840,000 trial program in which job network providers
would be offered cash to run advertising campaigns and to
employ staff to contact disability pensioners.
The providers would also be paid an
incentive for each disabled pensioner placed in a
job.
"With now rising 700,000
Australians on disability pensions, it is time for us to
work as cooperatively as we can with those people who may
have a chance of re-entering the workplace," Mr Anderson
said in Adelaide.
"And that is what the government is
intent upon doing.
"We are always looking for ways to
get those people, many of whom have skills that the
community and the economy need, back into the
workforce.
"Every one you get back onto the
pay roll saves the taxpayer (money) as well.
"We are now spending in the order
of $2.6 billion a year on disability pensions, and it's a
very, very good thing every time we can secure a
successful employment outcome, part-time or full-time,
for any one of those people."
But Opposition Leader Mark Latham
claimed that moving people off the disability support
pension (DSP) and into the workforce without training
would create more unemployment. "Unless you're willing to
invest in disabled people and give them the training and
rehabilitation and support they're going to find it very,
very hard to find a job," Mr Latham told reporters in
Sydney.
"So unless you're investing up
front and putting the social investments behind them
(and) then moving them off the DSP ... (this) is just a
recipe for higher unemployment."
Mr Latham said it was "sad" the
government viewed disabled pensioners as an opportunity
to save money.
"It's sad that the government sees
disabled Australians as a chance to save money instead of
a chance to invest in them and give them the job that's
needed to fulfill their potential in life."
Mr Latham said the Labor approach
was to invest in people on the DSP so that they could
find employment.
