Disabled poverty figures 'shameful'

(Transcript from World News Australia Radio)

A report by the Australian Council of Social Service shows people with disability are more than twice as likely as other Australians to be living in poverty.

The Australian Council of Social Service's report shows more than 620,000 people with disability live below the poverty line.

That's equivalent to more than a quarter of people with a disability surviving on less than $600 a week, which is half the median household income.

ACOSS chief executive Cassandra Goldie says the figures are shocking.

"I think it's really troubling that despite 20 years of strong economic growth and the fact that we have overall relatively low rates of unemployment, we still have such significant levels of people living below the poverty line. We're one of the wealthiest countries in the world. It's absolutely shameful that this situation is allowed to continue."

The National Disability Insurance Scheme, now to be called Disability Care Australia, will commence in four launch sites, in four states on the 1st of July this year.

Ms Goldie says the scheme is a good start, but more action is needed to address the barriers to unemployment faced by people with disability.

"There will be a whole group of people who will not be getting any assistance out of that scheme [NDIS] who are currently on Newstart and not getting the breaks they need. So we, as a country, must ask ourselves is it fair that we are saying to people with a disability 'You must get out and get a job', and they desperately want them. But on the other hand we're not making sure that workplaces are taking people into the workforce and providing the supports that will be needed."

Gerard Thomas is from the National Welfare Rights Network that provides legal assistance to people receiving Centrelink payments.

He says research conducted by the organisation shows half of the people who have sought a disability support pension have been rejected under harsher rules introduced by the federal government during the past two years.

He says his clients face a number of employment barriers.

"We receive calls from those people, many of who have significant disabilities seeking their way through the employment service system, struggling to live now on 35 dollars a day, and they're finding that just impossible to make ends meet. The other concern for many people is that if you look at the profile of people on disabilities, it's changing significiantly. Three out four of people on disability are aged over forty. One in two are aged over 50. So many of those people aren't just facing disability discrimination, but age discrimination in the workforce as well."

Mr Thomas says his organisation would like to see the federal government implement its own policy of hiring people with disabilities.

"Federal government, I think it is fair to say, while it's been active on a number of fronts, has been asleep at the wheel in relation to its own responsibilities to employ of people with disabilities in the Commonwealth service. The number has fallen from 5.2 per cent in 1992 to around 2.9 per cent last year. That is a shocking indictment and we certainly support the call for the establishment of targets for people with disability in the Commonwealth public service. Obviously businesses also have a role to play."

The President of People with Disability Australia, Craig Wallace, says living in poverty takes a huge toll on mental health and wellbeing.

"The reality of it might be people who might not have been to the cinema for years, people who can't afford to go to dinner with friends, people who have lost social networks, people whose marriages have broken up because they've been in poverty for a very long time - people who are on a very thin thread. I have a friend from Canberra, where I'm from, who had a scooter and if it broke down - and it did - he was stuck. And we spent four hours with that person trying to talk him out of taking his own life. That is the extent of the thread people are on with this issue and with poverty."

He says a national strategy is required to address the particular challenges people with disability face when it comes to unemployment.

"If we were talking about Indigenous (issues), we'd be talking about a national close the gap strategy with a range of (social) levers. And I think we need to be thinking about that way in terms of disability. I think we need to look at a number of different employment levers, we need to be looking at quotas and goals in employment, we need to be looking at mandatory reporting by companies. We need to be looking at things like tax breaks, additional assistance to get people into jobs. But often it's not just about landing people in jobs. That's the last thing you do, at the end of a long series of things, to get people's lives stabilised."