Australia — In
the lead up to Budget announcements on welfare reform for
people on DSP, a leading welfare group, expert in Social
Security law, today called on the Minister to correct a
major flaw in the law and the policy of Centrelink and to
provide a genuine guarantee to all disability pensioners
that they can return to pension if they try going back to
work and their effort fails.
Despite numerous statements from
Government ministers that people on a Disability
Support Pension (DSP) have the safety net of having
their payment suspended for two years, not cancelled, if
they take up a job and test their capacity to work, the
National Welfare Rights Network (NWRN) has found
that this is not so and the current provisions are deeply
flawed.
The NWRN today provided Minister
Andrews a detailed analysis showing that all the
assurances of ministers and the Treasurer, although no
doubt well intended, count for nothing when the law and
Centrelink practice are examined.
NWRN President, Michael Raper said
that "unless a person on DSP has a guaranteed safety net
to protect their income, and certainty that they won't
lose their pension if they try getting back to work and
it fails, they will not have the confidence to test their
capacity. Minister Andrews has rightly acknowledged that
this fear is genuine and understandable and that it
creates a major barrier to people with disability testing
their capacity to work.
"The Government's "guarantee" that
payment will only be suspended for two years and that
return to DSP will be automatic if the job doesn't work
out must be something that all pensioners can rely on.
But, if you look at the law and Centrelink policy and
practice, there is no such guarantee or certainty.
"According to our analysis and the
experience of our members, the reality is:
- the law only gives a discretion
to Centrelink to suspend rather than cancel payment -
no guarantee at all;
- the law requires Centrelink to
cancel, not just suspend DSP, if a person doesn't
notify Centrelink within 14 days of employment of more
than 30 hours per week;
- if a person does manage to get
their DSP suspended for two years, Centrelink may
nevertheless take the fact that someone is working
full-time to be reason to review their eligibility for
DSP;
- where a person who has been
suspended under these rules reclaims DSP within two
years, it is Centrelink policy not to reinstate DSP
unless Centrelink believes that the sole reason the
person is no longer working 30 hours a week is because
of their disability; and
- the people most likely to be
affected by these cancellation rules are people with
intellectual or psychiatric disabilities, or acquired
brain injury.
"The current provisions are so
inadequate, complex and difficult to access that in
2003-04, only about 11,700 people on DSP were able to
gain access to the suspension provisions.
"We call on the Minister to address
this flaw and this genuine fear factor before any further
announcements are made about disability reform. This fear
of having no income security is a genuine concern for
people with a disability and understandably leads to
'safety' behaviour rather than the 'risky' behaviour of
trying to take up a job."
"The National Welfare Rights
Network has recommended that the current 'discretion'
to suspend be made mandatory by replacing 'may' with
'must' in the Act, that the 14 day notification
requirement be removed and that taking up work should
lead to a genuine suspension of DSP without further
medical or work capacity review."
