Friday, October 17, 2014

Changing names doesn't alter dependence

A CIS report says 5.2% of working age Australians are dependent on a Disability Support Pension. One in twenty is a large number of people to be out of the workforce for health reasons.

So how does New Zealand compare? At first glance, favourably. September Benefit fact sheets released today show only 3.4% of the working age population on the old Invalid Benefit - now Supported Living Payment. Substantially lower.

But wait on.

Remember that people previously reliant on the Sickness Benefit were moved onto the Jobseeker benefit. They are not classified as 'work ready'  because they have a 'health condition or disability'. This group represents a further 2 percent of the relevant population....which puts NZ slightly ahead of Australia.

That makes more sense.

The report also notes that the numbers receiving DSP  in Australia increased 250% between 1982 and 2011.

In NZ, the numbers on a Sickness or Invalid benefit rose by 487% over the same period.

From 25,068 in 1982 to 147,029 in 2011

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Disability affects 10% of the population. About half of those, are not so affected as to prevent them working, but the other half are.

Whats wrong with these numbers?