Link: “Ask a policy expert: why is it so hard to get on the disability support pension?”
While successive Labor and Liberal-National governments have significantly reduced the number of people receiving the payment, this has not translated into increased employment and economic security for people with disability.
The significant fall in people receiving the DSP since the “structural shift” has been accompanied by a corresponding dramatic increase in the number of people with disabilities and medical illnesses receiving the significantly lower Newstart, as Nijole does. Essentially, people with disability have been moved from the higher-paying DSP to the lower-paying Newstart – the outcome from changes to DSP requirements has been to push people already in poverty further into poverty.
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Jessica Smith on .