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Down Syndrome NSW
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Monday 26 May 2014

Recent commentary about the Disability Support Pension

Details of how the reassessment of the work capacity of people under 30 who began receiving the Disability Support Pension between 2008 and 2011 are not yet available, but there has been plenty of media commentary about who receives DSP and who 'deserves' to, and its impact on employment of people with disability, such as these examples:

Evidence does not back claims of a blow-out in numbers receiving disability support pension
Judith Ireland, Sydney Morning Herald, 23rd May 2014
... a leading disability advocate argues the problem with the disability pension is not an "explosion" in the number of people on the payment, but the low levels of employment of people with a disability. National Disability Services chief executive Ken Baker says the disability pension had only grown by 116 people between the end of 2011 and the end of 2013 ...

Tele's sloppy journalism hurts our most vulnerable
Front page Daily Telegraph,
22nd May 2014
Click to enlarge the image

Frank Quinlan, The Drum, 23rd May 2014
... Most bizarrely, the story compared our country's war veterans to recipients of the pension, suggesting a negative comparison between these proven heroes and the dross on the DSP.

Ironically, some of those so called DSP 'slackers' would be veterans themselves, perhaps with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, for example.

In reality, the front page of the Daily Telegraph yesterday did a large number of Australians, who are battling every day with a serious mental illness or who care for somebody with a serious mental illness, a tremendous disservice ...


Complaints to press council in response to Daily Telegraphs depiction of disability pensioners as slackers
Nick Grimm, PM (ABC Radio), 22nd May 2014
... Rupert Murdoch's Sydney Daily Telegraph is being accused of scapegoating the disabled in a furore over its coverage of the budget aftermath ...


Budget 2014: it's time to raise our expectations

Dr George Taleporos, Ramp Up, 19th May 2014
While last week's Budget announcement may have sparked conversation about the significant barriers to employment for people with disabilities, changes to the Disability Support Pension may actually help to change a culture of low expectation ...

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