NZ Disability Support Network Conference

  • Paula Bennett
Social Development

E nga mana, e nga reo, e te iwi o te motu, tena koutou, tena koutou, tena koutou katoa.

Thank you for this opportunity to speak to you all. It’s great to be here.

Today I’d like to spend a bit of time talking about:

•    our current welfare system
•    welfare reform
•    what it means for people with disabilities

Our welfare system is failing you. And worse, it is failing the people you work with.
 
The current system

New Zealand has one of the most generous welfare systems in the world.
But despite the good intentions of the architects of this system, it no longer works as it should.

There are 351,000 working age people on benefit -13 per cent of all working age New Zealanders.

More than 170,000 people have been on welfare for more than a decade.  
And there are 222,000 children living in benefit-dependent homes.

Times have been tough lately, but it’s too simplistic to simply point the finger at the economy.

Back in 2006, following years of good economic times, we still had 280,000 beneficiaries. That’s as good as it got.

Welfare costs the New Zealand taxpayer $8 billion a year ($2 billion of this goes on the Sickness and Invalid’s Benefit).

The lifetime costs are much higher.

This little country of ours can’t afford to have this many people on benefits.

Not to mention the accompanying social costs – poverty, underachievement, low self worth, poor health and lost opportunities.

Doing nothing is not an option. Doing nothing, is a fail.

I acknowledge change is scary, so let me explain what we’re doing and why.

The system has historically been passive.

Essentially we’ve handed a weekly sum of money to two-thirds of beneficiaries and left them to their own devices. This is a failure in the system.

Most are not expected to work, even if work is offered to them. There is little focus on personal responsibility or independence.

Nor does the system step in early enough with support and resources to help those most at risk of becoming long-term beneficiaries.

Our system, founded in the 1930s, is based on old-fashioned assumptions about who can and can’t earn a living.
 
Those assumptions don’t apply today, but have meant large groups of people are already locked into benefit dependence.

Too often the system assumes people aren’t capable of work and that’s where we let people down.

Especially when it comes to women, sole parents and people with disabilities.

I’ve heard many in the disability sector talk about how the most disabling aspect of life is society’s attitudes.

The name ‘Invalid’s Benefit’ speaks volumes about that kind of attitude that used to be so prevalent

When we consulted on welfare reforms, people told us they felt the term invalid was offensive and I can understand that.

So when benefit categories change, we will do away with the term ‘invalids’ and introduce the Supported Living Payment.

The criteria will remain the same, but I’ll come back to that in a moment.

So society has changed. Attitudes are different.

Medical advances and technology have opened doors for people who were once considered to be incapable.

A shift in attitudes has opened doors too, though we still have a long way to go.

We know there are some fantastic employer champions out there who are working to change attitudes and overcome barriers.

We need to do more work with employers to understand and overcome the perceived barriers.

These days, we know that a great many people with disabilities– and those with health issues – can and do want to work.

In fact, out of 539,000 disabled people over the age of 15 in 2006, more than 40 per cent are working. And three-quarters of those are working full time.

People with disabilities have a lot to offer in the right job with the right support.

We have to do more to make sure they get those opportunities. If we don’t,  we are simply failing them.

Welfare reform – how it will affect people with disabilities

So that’s the context underpinning this Government’s conviction that we must do things differently. We have to.

Our welfare system is in for a total overhaul, with a greater focus on work, and what people can do – not what they can’t

We are simplifying the benefit system. Benefit categories will change and as I mentioned the word ’invalid’ will go.

I do want to make one thing clear. We acknowledge some people will never be able to support themselves and that’s why we have a welfare system.

Those with very disabling, long lasting or terminal conditions will be fast-tracked on to the new Supported Living Payment.

They are not expected to work. This payment also supports people who are caring for those needing hospital-level care – the people currently receiving the DPB Care of Sick and Infirm.

But in the main, we expect more people will be available and looking for work.

And we’ll work with more sick and people with disabilities to find out what they can do and what they want to do.

We’ll do more to help with things like training, childcare, workplace support and health and disability support, when this will help people into work.

We’ll be more hands on.

We’re going to see much more intensive support, early on, for people who can work but who are likely to remain on a benefit without some extra help.

And if people choose to work, we won’t make it harder. Some will work for short periods and will need to go off and on the SLP – we’ll make it easier.

For those who choose to off this benefit into work, there is a financial incente – we will keep paying their benefit minus $100 a week till it’s extinguished.

This is a new way of viewing welfare – actually it’s pretty radical.

We’ve based welfare reform on something called the “investment approach”.

Essentially it means that we look at long term gain, rather than easy wins.

That means focussing our resources on those who are most likely to remain on welfare for a long time without more support.

Currently the system channels 90% of our resources into the 10 percent of people who are on the Unemployment Benefit.

But the fact is, by and large when those people find a job, they’ll move off the benefit and generally don’t need a lot of help to do so.

So by focusing on this ‘easy group’, we are letting down many others who might not be as easy, but are certainly worthy of the same support.

So we’re going to turn the focus around.

So, for example, we’ll put more into helping someone with a disability who is able to work but has no qualifications or experience than we will into a university graduate who is just between jobs.
 
It just makes sense.

The longer people remain out of work – especially because of disability or illness – the less likely they are to work again.

Our system as it is, fails people with disibilities and those who are sick by assuming their condition automatically means they have nothing to offer.

No-one is saying this isn’t challenging. But we can’t accept a system that writes off tens of thousands of New Zealanders like this.

Health and Disability Panel

We are working with people who have skills and experience in the health and disability sector on a Health and Disability Panel.

It’s vital that we thoroughly understand all of the barriers people face, along with their capabilities and interests.

We need to understand more about what work people can do, so that we can connect them to employment opportunities and support.  

It’s vital that we get the right support and services to help disabled people or those with health issues back into work.

Our Health and Disability Panel is helping the Ministry of Social Development with this.

We’re also keen to hear from you. When we have some firm proposals, we’ll be going out to health and disability groups, and seeking your views.

What else is happening?

In addition to the reforms, plenty is going on in the background focused on employment for disabled people.

In the wider picture, making sure that more disabled people can enter and stay in work is a priority of the Disability Action Plan.

That’s a whole-of-government plan towards a fully inclusive society.

As you well know, disabled people face many barriers to work.

That includes the attitude and capability of employers, the need for workplace accessibility, unmet health or disability support needs, and the financial implications of working.

We’re workingwith employers and disability groups to overcome these issues.

We’ve put out a call for innovative ways to make sure disabled people get and stay in jobs, supported by the new Disability Employment Innovation Fund.

Some exciting new ideas are emerging from that, such as:

  • new plain language business planning tools to help people with intellectual impairment become self-employed.
  • a Rotary partnership where employers agree to take on a disabled person next time they need a new staff member.
  • a Deaf Trades Co-op in Auckland where a small group of skilled deaf men work together on a self-employed basis to provide trades to the general community. We expect once the Co-Op is established and underway these men will move off benefit.
  • a practical workshop for employers and managers on managing and supporting people with mental health conditions in the workplace.

We’re also trialling a way to help disabled school students get the skills they need to make that shift from school to further education, training or work.

And we’re testing a new approach put forward in the Enabling Good Lives report last year. It’s about how we can support disabled people based on fairness, inclusion and valuing everyone’s contribution.

I believe my associate Minister Tariana Turia spoke to you about this earlier in the week.

 

Basically it promotes the idea that when disabled people aren’t working, they should have the opportunity to do everyday things in everyday places in our communities.

Summary

So to wrap up, we have a lot of work in front of us.

The welfare reforms are substantial and it’s important that people understand exactly what we are doing and why.

It’s also important that we get input from groups like yours.

The first stage of legislation will be introduced to Parliament this month.

It affects DPB, Widow’s and Woman Alone Benefits, as well as young people and teen parents.

Changes will begin to take place from late July, but we have a robust Select Committee process to go through before then.

A second bill overhauling benefit categories will be introduced to this July taking effect from July next year.

There is a cost to all this - $130 million a year.

But the savings are even greater – $1 billion over four years.

We expect to see 46,000 fewer people on benefits and up to 11,000 more beneficiaries working part time.

Someone recently commented to me that I must be looking forward to seeing what we achieve for all those people and their kids.

But I’m not.  

I’m looking forward to seeing what they achieve.