National data mirrors demand at Mission Australia's services

New national data released today showing an increase in demand for welfare services across Australia mirrors Mission Australia's own frontline experience.

Mission Australia CEO, Toby Hall, said the number of people seeking assistance at Mission Australia’s homeless services and other community assistance programs has continued to rise in recent years – highlighting the ongoing plight of Australians struggling with financial and personal hardship.

Data published by the Australian Council of Social Service today reported a 12 per cent increase in assistance provided by agencies for services ranging from homelessness to mental health to aged care.

The data also showed that despite providing services on 6,180,282 occasions in 2009-10 compared with 5,513,780 in 2008-09, more than half of the 783 organisations polled said they had been forced to turn people away as they were unable to meet demand.

“This is a clear indication of how serious the demand has become for more services to help people who are struggling in our community,” Mr Hall said.

“Everyday, staff at our services are contacted by individuals and families desperately in need of help: people struggling with long-term homelessness; parents who are unable to find work and can no longer afford to pay the rent; and children who are dropping out of school because of the challenges they face on the home front.

“These trends are particularly concerning, when you consider that high unemployment, large numbers of young people not engaged in education or training, and general disengagement from community are the seeds of the kind of activities we have seen in Britain this month.

“This is a strong reminder to Australia of how important it is to provide adequate support services to help disadvantaged members of our community turn their lives around.

“We don’t want to see Australia's level of disadvantage increase. And most of all, we don’t want to see people in need being turned away from crucial services because the demand is just too great.

“At Mission Australia we are committed to helping people turn their lives around – especially those people who have been turned away by every other service provider.

“We don’t want to see anybody left behind – and that’s why we will continue to work with all levels of government to identify new opportunities to support people who are at risk of homelessness or disadvantage," said Mr Hall.

Media coverage - The Newcastle Herald: System fails jobless on disability support

As we prepare for tonight’s Budget, Mission Australia’s CEO Toby Hall says it’s time to take the emotion out of the welfare reform debate and realise the need to offer disability support pension recipients who do have some capacity to work intensive assistance and incentives to encourage them back into the workforce. After all, he argues, a welfare system that continues to let people avoid participating in the community does them – and everyone in the community – a disservice.

Here’s what Toby has to say in today’s Newcastle Herald.

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There’s no doubt welfare reform is an emotive issue.

Last week I made some comments partly about the need for any such reforms in the government’s upcoming budget to look at re-engaging the large number of people on the disability support pension who have some capacity to work.

It was interesting how some immediately and misguidedly interpreted my comments as “welfare-bashing”.

It’s a shame that such strong emotions have got in the way of us openly discussing how the system has allowed the number of disability pension recipients to balloon to about 800,000 and has failed abysmally to look for potential solutions to the problem.

So let’s take the emotion out of it and look at the problem with a fresh set of eyes.

There is no question that the majority of people in receipt of disability pensions are genuinely disabled and require significant levels of support. In fact, we believe there is a case for greater levels of assistance for this group.

However, over the years, successive governments and a failing welfare system have allowed thousands of people without serious disabilities to move from the dole to receiving disability pensions when they are not engaged in looking for work. This is despite the fact they might have a capacity for employment and their issues could be overcome with intensive support.

The numbers are staggering. In 1982, almost 217,000 people were receiving disability pensions. By 2001 it had reached 578,000 and is now close to 800,000.

In those 27 years, Australia’s population has risen by 44 per cent, and yet the numbers on the disability pension increased 250 per cent.

We do not seek to stigmatise these people or blame them for being moved on to disability pensions – it is the system’s fault for letting this happen.

Disability pension recipients with the capacity for work are not malingerers. They are not “rorters”. We recognise this group of people have genuine barriers to employment that they need support in overcoming.

But they can be overcome. So what’s stopping us from trying it?

There is no doubt that a fair Australia must have an adequate safety net that provides unemployed, sick, disabled and vulnerable people with the support they need.

But let's not pretend that too much time spent on welfare – particularly for people who are physically and intellectually able to work – will not have a dramatic impact on a person's health and wellbeing.

And a welfare system that continues to let people capable of social, economic and community participation avoid such contact does them – and all of us – a disservice.

To illustrate the dramatic health impacts involved, the Australasian Faculty of Occupational and Environmental Medicine released a report last year which showed that long-term joblessness significantly increases the risk of heart disease, lung cancer and suicide.

Further still, suicide among young men out of work for six months or more increases dramatically.

We need to better assist job seekers to stem the flow of people moving on to disability pensions.

In a recent Mission Australia survey, almost one-third of our job seekers had been incorrectly assessed by Centrelink.

Poor initial assessment of job seekers can easily lead to individuals being incorrectly moved on to disability support pensions and from there it’s a quick path to entrenched joblessness.

We need to offer disability support pension recipients - those who do have some capacity to work – intensive assistance and incentives to encourage them back into the workforce.

One of our recommendations is to create a new stream in the employment service system to offer the specialised help required.

Recent studies show that up to 85 per cent of people experiencing serious mental health issues can return to work or study with the right help.

If we get in early enough and provide the right help we’re talking about setting people up for long-term, sustainable careers.

An unproductive life destroys a person and can spread like a cancer through their family and community.

We only need to look at the destruction and decay that passive welfare has created in some Aboriginal communities and suburbs on our city fringes.

We all know this – governments know it, community agencies know it, the public senses it – and with any luck tonight’s budget will be the start of doing something practical about it.

Story originally published 10 May 2011 in the Newcastle Herald.

ACOSS Media Release: Inequality is growing in Australia

The peak body for the community and social welfare sector, ACOSS, says it will use its 2011 National Conference in Melbourne this week to illustrate the worsening plight of disadvantaged groups and people struggling on low incomes, which it says is leading to growing inequality in Australia.

"The indications are that more people are hitting hard times and falling into poverty," said Dr Cassandra Goldie, CEO, Australian Council of Social Service.

"At last count it was estimated that over 2.2 million people in Australia were living in poverty and 105,000 were homeless, but we believe these numbers are likely to be higher.

"Preliminary figures from our 2011 Community Sector Survey show the number of people accessing and being turned away from services is increasing, especially in the areas of disability, housing and homelessness, and youth welfare services. But the largest increase is in area of financial support and/or emergency relief, which has seen a 47% increase in the numbers of people turned away.

"The data is still being analysed and we expect to release a comprehensive report sometime in April, but the picture is already clear, and we are seeing enormous strain on community welfare groups. More than half the 745 organisations surveyed reported that they are struggling to meet the growing demand (54.8%). And the recent flood disasters are likely to have made this situation more acute, which occurred after survey period (July 2009-June 2010).

"Across our network, which comprises thousands of community and social services groups around the country, including the big charities, there have been reports of a surge in demand for emergency help during the Christmas holiday period, attributed to the accelerating cost of living pressures.

"St Vincent de Paul Society and Anglicare for instance, both reported a jump of about 30 per cent when most charities usually expect an 8-10 per cent increase for help around this peak period.

"We know the cost of essential items and services like food, rent, energy, health, education, clothing and transport costs continue to go up. In fact since 2000, the cost of living in Australia, as evidenced by the CPI has risen by 34% with energy expenses in particular doubling in the past decade and expected to double again in the next 5 years. And ACOSS believes this is understating it as the CPI isn't necessarily the best measure to reflect the disproportionate impact of the rise of essential goods and services for people on the lowest incomes.

"We know that nationally over a million low-income households are in housing stress with housing costs exceeding more than 30% of household income. 65% of people on low incomes in private rentals currently experience housing stress, with many of these households spending over half their income on rent.

"And whilst the cost of staying afloat has gone up, those people who some of the most reliant on our social safety net - people who are unable to get paid work - have not had commensurate increases in their social security payment - the Newstart Allowance.

"Although there have been some efforts by the Australian Government to alleviate these pressures, especially in response to the recent global financial crisis, with lump-sum payments to families, pensioners and carers, and increases to pensioners, other disadvantaged groups, such as those on Newstart and sole parents have missed out. Even when there are slight increases to meet increases in cost of living, these groups always receive less because of the way payments are indexed.

"Right now, a person living on Newstart receives just $34 dollars a day, and their last increase to cover the cost of living was less than 40c per day ($5.20 per fortnight). Newstart is now a massive $127 less than the amount received by people on pensions.

"We are particularly concerned about people facing long term unemployment, as they fall deeper into poverty and risk of homelessness. The number of people becoming unemployed long term continues to rise, despite the fact that Australia's unemployment rate is down to 5.0%. New figures released only last week show that another 6,500 people were out of paid work long term in February, taking the total number to 356,375 Australia-wide.

"All of this paints a worrying picture that challenges our long held notion of a fair and egalitarian society and requires the attention of our key policy and decision makers. We have urged action on a number of fronts, including reforms to social security payments, employment services, and our taxation system. ACOSS will use this week's National Conference to highlight these issues and allow community service groups working at the coalface to point the way forward.

"The Conference provides an opportunity for all of these issues to be put on the table and dissected by community workers, researchers, and government representatives, so we find ways to deal with these growing problems and reverse the current trend of growing inequality which threatens to make us poorer as a nation," Dr Goldie said.

For full details, including sessions, speakers, and program visit www.acoss.org.au