The
Guardian,
24
October 2019:
Official
government statistics have underreported the number of sick and disabled Newstart recipients by as much as 40% or as many as 80,000
people.
Guardian Australia revealed earlier this year that Newstart recipients with
partial capacity to work has reached a record high of 200,000 in December 2018 as
people increasingly languish on the unemployment payment, now for an
average of three years.
But new data for June 2019, released on Wednesday, provided different figures, showing 284,900 on Newstart had “partial capacity to work” in
December 2018.
The
figure for June increased to 289,489, of a total of 686,000 people on Newstart. It means 42% of recipients now have an illness or
disability that prevents them from working full-time. In September 2014, the figure was 25% using the new figures.
Notes
provided in the updated quarterly statistics report confirmed the
previous data only included people who had been assessed as having a
“partial capacity to work” within the past two years. This is
also stated in the previous reports.
But
it means sick and disabled people who have been languishing on Newstart for years but had not been reassessed in the past 48 months
were excluded from the statistics.
The
new statistics are significant because welfare groups have long
argued changes to the disability support pension would result in a
large number of people languishing on Newstart because they were too
sick to work.
“It’s
shocking that 40% of people on Newstart have an illness or
disability,” said the Australian Council of Social Service chief
executive Cassandra Goldie.
“No
one can survive on $40 a day and it’s even tougher if you’re sick
or have a disability. It’s heartless and negligent.”……
The
Department of Social Services’ Nathan Williamson rejected that the
previous data contained “errors”, saying the department had found
a “better way, a more fulsome way” to report the statistics.
People
with a partial capacity to work are considered not sick or disabled
enough to be granted the disability pension as a result of the
tightening of disability support pension eligibility. They are
assessed as being able to work more than 15 hours a week but less
than 30 hours a week.
The
Howard government introduced “partial capacity to work” for
people on Newstart in a bid to get more people into work and reduce
spending on the more generous disability support pension.
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