22% of households with disabled are poor - OECD

Not only are we DSP'ers in Australia highly over represented in poverty figures, but we are joined worldwide by member countries of the OECD. The OECD says that 22% of households that have a disabled person receiving benefits for their disabilities, live in poverty. This is 8% higher than other households.

Australia is not unique in this. In fact we're one of the leaders of the pack with over 40% of us on the DSP in Australia living in poverty. Which is noted in the report as Australia being one of the countries with significantly higher poverty rates:

The OECD when examining inequality noted that "disability benefits reduce income inequality", but they did have the danger of "creating poverty traps" - i.e. someone who stays on disability, unable to get into work and thus earn a better income than the mere $19,544 a year. 

The OECD noted that "many countries have thus started to reform disability benefits to reach a better, and more sustainable, balance between income security and labour market (reintegration of disabled people)". 

This certainly happened here in 2011, and it certainly seems to have worked in reducing the abnormal spike in number from 2009-2011 during the GFC. 

The OECD also noted that DSP was certainly no escape from poverty. It found that "on average in the OECD, 22 per cent of households with a disabled person receiving benefits live in poverty, compared with around 14 per cent for other households." But it noted as well that the gap was significantly higher in five countries, Ireland, Korea, the UK, the USA, and Australia. 

The changes to the eligibility rules in 2011 look to have tightened the system and suggest growth of DSP is now just in line with population growth - and its ageing nature. If Kevin Andrews wants to press ahead with more "reforms" to the DSP he needs to explain why what was done in 2011 was not enough - and he needs to provide more than just nominal "scary numbers" that lack any context. 

Without such an explanation it appears the measures will have little impact other than to reduce equality in Australia by targeting some of the most vulnerable in our society, and as the IMF has found, that's no way to aim for economic growth. more

I keep asking myself, why the fuck is the gov targeting us? We're fuckin poor. WTF do they think we can contribute to the national debt? You can't get blood out of a stone.

In any case, other countries are moving to address this problem of poverty in their disabled populations. Why now is Abbott, the so called Christian, targeting the most vulnerable in the community over the mighty fuckin dollar? And what has now been proven as some of the most vulnerable worldwide. Why?