The government’s ‘those who can work, should work’ line rings hollow considering minimal investment into employment assistance for disabled people says the New Zealand Disability Support Network.
“It feels like the government has disabled employment support in the ‘too hard’ basket. The benefits of employment to disabled New Zealanders and their families is wide-ranging, but it needs a strategic approach and investment,” said NZDSN CEO Peter Reynolds.
“Disability employment support investment is stagnant. While the benefit crack down is happening, we’d hope some resource can go to disabled people who want to crack on with work.”
The recent budget had nothing to help Employment Support providers, who’d gone for years without a significant increase in their fees, and who were recently given a flat two-year roll-over.
Helping employers who want to hire a disabled person or people takes quality training and support before and after their placement – providers are set to help, but are hamstrung by a lack of resource.
Disappointingly, it’s possible for working disabled people to have their benefits affected as employer support can be counted against them, a situation NZDSN says must be urgently resolved.
“The current state of affairs is incredibly frustrating for disabled people who want to work – the last few years have been a missed opportunity to invest in supporting employers who’d like to take on a disabled person but don’t know where to start.”
“Employment Support used to be important – we’re asking the government to consider disabled workers as part of this shake up, it’s long overdue,” said Peter Reynolds.