Australian Employers Network on Disability

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has released a major report on disability as it relates to employment, entitled "Sickness, Disability and Work: Breaking the Barriers (Vol. 2)".  This report relates specifically to Australia, Luxembourg, Spain and the United Kingdom.

In its report, the OECD emphasises the importance of significant welfare reforms in Australia, particularly in relation to encouraging employers to retain employees with disability.

The premise of the report was to explore possible reasons that so many workers leave the labour market permanently due to ill health, and why so many people with disability are denied the opportunity to work.  A high proportion of people with ill health or disability want to work, and are able to work.  The report recommends that assisting these “motivated” workers with disability into decent employment outcomes can have a two pronged, positive effect – improving living standards for people with disability, and raising the economic output in the long term.

The OECD report also states that the Howard government welfare reforms (Welfare to Work) were ineffective, and created problems by forcing people previously on the Disability Support Pension (DSP)who were able to work in some capacity onto unemployment benefits, with much more inflexible conditions. 

The Rudd government has stated that the systems that are currently in place can be improved upon, and has pledged to ensure that people with disability receive greater opportunities for education and training, leading to improved employment prospects.
For a full copy of the report please visit the OECD website.