Pension Rules Scare Disabled Out Of Job Hunt
Sydney Morning Herald
Thursday December 21, 2006
DISABILITY pensioners are too scared to look for a job because they could lose their pensions and be put on the lower unemployment benefit - contrary to government assurances - a major disability agency says.
It accused the Federal Government of having broken its promise to exempt tens of thousands of disability support pensioners from new welfare-to-work rules.The peak body for disability employment agencies, ACE, said disability pensioners who thought they were exempt from the changes have found they are subject to automatic reviews of their pension eligibility if they volunteer to look for a job."It is having a terrible disincentive effect," ACE's head, Lucy Macali, said.The Government had promised that the welfare-to-work rules that came into effect in July would not apply to the 700,000 people already on the disability support pension by last May.But pensioners in the "grandfathered" group who want to try their hand in the labour market are required to undergo a new job capacity assessment. The assessment can lead to cancellation of the pension and transfer to the Newstart allowance, worth $45 less a week. As well, on Newstart they would have to comply with rigorous mutual obligation requirements.Ms Macali said the requirement was counterproductive. "People are saying, 'Why come forward to try to get a job when there's no guarantee I'll get one, and at the end of the process I could be put on Newstart?' "The federal Discrimination Commissioner, Graeme Innes, has called on the Government to guarantee that pensioners in the grandfathered group will not lose the pension if they volunteer to look for work.Disability pensioners already undergo a review every two years to test their continuing eligibility for the pension. They are under no obligation to look for a job to supplement - or supplant - their pension. Ms Macali said many in the grandfathered group would not risk testing themselves in the job market sooner than they had to.A woman named Megan wrote to a Hobart disability employment agency to withdraw from job hunting, saying: "I cannot risk losing my disability payment ... I understand that at some stage I will be required to be reassessed anyway, but I do not see the point in having to go through this and risk losing my payment until I have to."Under the welfare-to-work rules, new applicants for the disability pension must be incapable of working 15 hours or more a week; the grandfathered group is still subject to a more lenient test of 30 hours or more. Ms Macali said that while only a small number of the grandfathered group might lose their pension as a result of the new assessments, people were too scared to risk it.The Minister for Workforce Participation, Sharman Stone, said there was no evidence the job capacity assessments were having a disincentive effect. It was an "individual choice people make" to volunteer to look for work. "No one is asking them to step up. But if you felt fully fit ... why wouldn't you take the opportunity the Government is offering?" she asked. She said the job capacity assessments were a way of directing people into the right employment support program.
© 2006 Sydney Morning Herald