Some shameful parts of the media have resorted to a campaign on “welfare cheats” in an attempt to justify the message of a need to cut back on Australia’s ballooning welfare budget.
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There is no doubt some people rort the disability pension but the statistics of proven cases show that on a national scale this number is small and not going to lead to necessary cost-saving.
Perhaps more sinisterly, this campaign also paints a stereotypical picture of some vast and anomalous mass of “leaners”, the dehumanised mob beloved by shock jocks, who sponge off hard-working taxpayers.
The ease with which genuine welfare recipients can be swept up in this blind indignation shows the dangers of reform not willing to negotiate the complexities of the human cases.
In the case of the disability pension, we are frequently talking about some of the least fortunate in our society.
Finding victims among the most vulnerable may be easy but it is not practical – let alone moral – when it comes to arguments about who should do the “heavy lifting”.
Mission Australia boss Patrick McClure, who wrote the report for the federal government this week on the need to review the welfare system, advocated the need to simplify the system.
Given the labyrinthine nature of payments and the weight of the bureaucracy needed to support it, this objective makes sense but it doesn’t necessitate simplifying the recipients.
The report commendably says people receiving welfare payments shouldn’t be left worse off under the new system, but in an age of economic rationalism this must strike a note of alarm.
National Welfare Rights Network spokeswoman Maree O’Halloran has already highlighted a dread she feels in the upcoming May budget when a mystery surrounds how a government can make the system more sustainable and at the same time ensure people aren’t worse off.
She has already noted the tiered working age payment levels are an area recipients and providers alike will be looking at with anxiety before they can be sure they won’t be worse off.
Given the gravity of the impacts on the individuals, these are changes we should all watch with interest.
We should also hope the govern-
ment is prepared to do the hard work and ensure its solutions are individual-based and can account for the diversity of welfare recipients in our communities.
