DSP pension facts

The Murdoch media is going ape shit about the Disability Support Pension. Some of the headlines include: 

EDITORIAL: It's clearly time to tighten net on disability support pension 

Joe Hockey urged to dismantle ticking pensions time bomb

Pretty bloody scary for us on the DSP. 

Just a note here for a start; there are very good reasons why I'm on the DSP. In fact I blew the new DSP points test out of the water. I have three permanent conditions (maybe four now) which are depression/PTSD, Chronic kidney failure, and HIV. The possible new one is the stomach acid thing that put me in hospital the other week, the treatment being a new permanent daily tablet or it will come back. Yet I am being demonised in the media because I get the DSP.

So why is the gov targeting me, whilst buying some new bullshit US planes for the military at huge cost? I mean these articles are nit picking that us pensioner bludgers get mega money. FFS they're whinging that the DSP (like the aged pension) gets increased at the rate of wage increases rather than the CPI. So fuckin what? I spent 30 years fighting for wage increases through my working life. Why shouldn't I continue to get the benefit of unionism in this country as they continue to fight for wage increases, those increase rates passed on to pensioner increase rates, including the aged pension? Why are we even discussing this given the overall nature of our economy (albeit pre-Abbott)?

How about some basic facts eh? I always laugh when there's a quote in the media about how much we DSP people actually get. They always use the fortnightly figure to make it sound way more. Most people in trades get paid weekly, and even now I have to remind myself when looking at pay rates that it's fortnightly and not weekly. 

So imagine the outrage in tradie circles when they read in the morning Murdoch media (the tabloid they buy on the way to work to read) when it says "From March 30, the DSP will pay $843 a fortnight".....  ......"OMG the humanity! You mean these bloody DSP bludgers are getting $843 of my taxpayer's money to sit on their fuckin asses? While the gov goes broke? This must end!" ....bla..... 

Um, how about dividing that in half to get the weekly rate then of the full  Disability Support Pension? It comes out to $421.50. My share of the rent is $190 a week, which I get rent assistance on. Hardly a lifestyle choice. Not to mention the hoops you have to jump through to get it and the fact that it takes at least a month to get on it if you're lucky. There are extra things like the pensioner card that gives discounts and cheap scripts, and rent assistance that covers fuck all if you're in Sydney. But they don't take away from that fact that your basic DSP income is $421.50 a week, as of March 30th this year.

Yeah, the country's going broke over that? 

Yeah, I've worked fuckin hard for 30 years (anyone wanna try lifting 3-4 tonnes of paper a day for 5 days a week?) and now that I'm sick I don't see why the gov should be attacking me over their imagined Australian economic bla.

There's some hope. The latest is that the gov won't cut the DSP. We shall have to wait and see about that one.