Australian of the Year Dylan Alcott said allowing people on a Disability Support Pension to keep more of their child support payment as they take up work is a simple way to get more people with disabilities work.
The retired wheelchair tennis star told the government’s employment summit on Thursday that about 54 per cent of the almost 4.5 million people living with a disability in Australia were in the workforce , a participation rate that has not changed in 28 years.
Dylan Alcott at the Jobs and Skills Summit on Thursday. Credit: James Brickwood
“In a time of pandemic or natural disaster or recession, whose jobs go first? Jobs of people with disabilities, and that’s not fair,” he said.
“The time for lip service is over, to be honest, because we’ve had it for a long time.”
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Alcott said an “overlooked” step is to allow people on Disability Support Pension (DSP) to get more work without losing their benefits. He said there was the same problem with the pension, as retirees also faced losing part of their pay if they took on too much work.
“I don’t see why you can’t, to some extent, earn your pension… [or] DSP, and also work,” he said, noting that this would enable people with disabilities to contribute to Australia’s economic growth and help fill staff shortages.
The current maximum benchmark disability support pension is $900.80 per fortnight. Under the pension income test, a single person on the DSP loses 50¢ for every dollar they earn over $190 a fortnight, which advocates say can act as a disincentive to work an extra day or two.
A proposal to change the age pension means test as a way to encourage older Australians to return to the workforce is a policy idea endorsed by the Liberal Party since it lost office, and it was expected that the summit to reach an agreement on this.
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