One of the key challenges for people living with disabilities is finding work, and the government has just boosted funding for its key employment program. However, many Australians using Disability Employment Services, including some in Canberra, say the program isn't working as it should. Don Sheil has this Stateline report.
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00:0024-year-old Jordan Priest isn't sure about what he wants to do.
00:08He lives with autism and gets financial support from the Disability Support Pension, but he
00:13says it's still not enough to live independently.
00:15I mean, I did sort of expect the prices to be fairly, yeah, fairly high, $500 a week
00:25or whatever.
00:26Sort of a bit soul crushing.
00:29To continue receiving his support pension, Jordan's required to regularly meet with Disability
00:34Employment Services.
00:35It's the government's flagship program for helping people living with disability find
00:40and keep a job.
00:41This can include writing resumes, helping identify areas of interest and connecting
00:46with businesses to secure placements.
00:48But after four years, Jordan says his providers have done little to help and he's still no
00:53closer to finding work.
00:55It really does just feel frustrating at this point.
01:00Not even really just like, at first it was a disappointment and I just kind of sulked
01:04about it.
01:05Now it's just getting frustrating.
01:07Last financial year, the government spent $1.2 billion on Disability Employment Services
01:13or DES, but in the same year, only a third of people using a DES provider got work.
01:19The poor performance of the program was highlighted during the Disability Royal Commission, but
01:23years later, advocates say many of its fundamental issues still remain.
01:28DES has been a problematic program.
01:34It has not met, it's not lived up to its stated goals, its aims and objectives.
01:42Lachlan McLennan was taken off his support pension in 2016 and was forced to engage with
01:48the provider.
01:49It went from about, I think, $1,000 a fortnight to like $500 a fortnight.
01:57It's like financially it was crippling.
02:00Lachlan did get his pension reinstated, but says the experience has had a lasting impact.
02:06The overall result was it made things more difficult than it did to help any sort of
02:10situation.
02:11The financial incentives associated with the scheme have also drawn criticism.
02:16It appears the current DES system incentivises providers doing essentially very little where
02:23they can get away with that.
02:25Providers receive a quarterly fee for everyone on their books and they get a payment when
02:30a client completes a placement.
02:32This structure sometimes results in the most employable people getting priority while others
02:37with more complex needs get less help.
02:40What we've seen is that people come in and they don't get the most human-centric service
02:48that they could have received.
02:50Disability Employment Australia is the peak body for the vast majority of providers.
02:55If you're delivering into a society and labour market where there's still lots of exclusion,
03:00where there's still lots of ableism, that also constrains the ability of DES to be successful.
03:06The recent budget increased funding to disability employment services to $5.4 billion over the
03:12next five years.
03:13What assurances or what was your message to people that might say reforms have been made
03:17to DES in the past and with middling success, why would it be different this time?
03:22We believe by putting the person with disability at the centre of this and pushing DES providers
03:30for continuous improvement to meet the needs of individuals, we think that that will deliver results.
03:37It just really feels like it just goes absolutely nowhere because they just approach everybody
03:41the same way and it doesn't necessarily seem to work for everybody.
03:46But advocates say restoring trust in the system will take time.
03:50So there's a lot of work to be done but we feel confident that change can happen because
03:55to be honest, the alternative is too painful to think about.
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