A couple of years ago I supported the Make a Wish group which raises funds to send sick children to whatever they wished
for. This wonderful group was formed in 1985 and they “believe in the
healing power of a wish”. It’s up there for young children and young people who
have life-threatening illnesses. In the last 30 years they have given 8,000
wishes.But it’s just for children - it doesn’t include adults.
The government Department of Social Services (DSS) has a website page Guide to the List of Recognised Disabilities. Part 1 Recognised Disabilities, has 18 in the list, and many of these break down their conditions. It’s a long list. Part 2 lists 11 under Medical Conditions and also breaks down.
But it talks about children – it doesn’t include adults.
Adults are supposedly cared for by the government support. This morning, since I’m not eligible for a Make a Wish, I decided to do a search through the government pages to find out how I could get support and help to return to work. These days the number of adults who have life threatening and/or severely disabled illnesses has grown, but the government support has dropped. I was in the DSS website and looked further. If you’ve had a look through DSS, you may know just what I know.
Within DSS there’s a page titled About Australian Disability Enterprises which tells how they support “people with disability to engage in a wide variety of work tasks such as packaging, assembly, production, recycling, screen printing, plant nursery, garden maintenance and landscaping, cleaning services, laundry services and food services.” Really? Is this looking at people who are brain-injured and paralysed and don’t have any experience in any other “tasks”? I have qualifications and many years of experience in administration, WHS, auditing, financial support... Would I ever be considered?
There’s a link to the DSS talk about NDIS (National Disability
Insurance Scheme) which says that “people with
disability can already access supported employment in an Australian Disability
Enterprise where the NDIS has rolled out”, but you won’t find out more about that
until you click on the NDIS website link – and be told that “roll out of the full scheme in all states and territories (except
Western Australia) will start progressively from July 2016”. Really?? And
yet on DSS they say that “From 1 July
2015, the National Disability Insurance Agency will fund supported employment
for participants of the NDIS who work in Australian Disability Enterprises.”
Are we waiting
until July 2016 or is it already in place – without many people with disability?
On to a
different government website, the Disability Employment Services (which I had
to find through Google). The DES said that “Disability
Employment Services (DES) helps people
with disability find work and keep a job.” As I said, I found this through
Google – not through information given to me by the health department which I
have been involved with for two years; not from the support groups I’ve already
been enrolled with; not from Centrelink. Their page gave a link to Job Access,
which doesn’t really help people like me. JobAccess said “the average participation of employees with disability across industry
sectors is 10%”. In my opinion, 90% of the rest is far too high.
Just a note on an ANZ video that is linked on the DES page. I did a mentorship last year where my mentor was an ANZ employee. I have never been offered a job there, nor do I know how I would apply. This video on the DES page gave me the following message: “Error loading player. No playable sources found.” Perhaps that’s just me.
There is also a link to the Employment Assistance Fund page, where people with disability can apply for funds to “purchase a range of work related modifications and services for people who are about to start a job or who are currently working, as well as those who require assistance to find and prepare for work”. They offer help for modifications within the physical work environment (I usually work on my computer and definitely need a decent office chair), information and communication devices (I certainly need a new computer to keep working!) and, for me, disability awareness training. Except in the EAF guidelines section 2.1(f) said “To be eligible for assistance a person with disability must … be a Self-employed Worker who has been working at least 20 hours per week over the last 13 weeks and earning an hourly income that is at least equivalent to the National Minimum Wage”.
For me, that stops me getting any EAF assistance because, even though I write most days, I don’t receive anything near “an hourly income that is at least equivalent to the National Minimum Wage”.
The other government job source I found is called jobactive, apparently run by JobSearch which also seems to provides job searching for people with disabilities, but you need a jobactive provider. You know what? By this time I became extremely frustrated! What is the difference between JobAccess, JobSearch and jobactive? Why three different job sourcing sites? Do they really work??
Okay, so I went into the jobactive provider search and found 1386 nationally, and 23 providers within 25km from Redcliffe – 1 x Employment Option, 2 x STEPs (which I am already registered with), 2 x IPAR Rehabilitation, 3 x Epic Employment Services, 3 x Red Cross Employment Services, 4 x MAX Employment, 8 x HELP Employment. Perhaps if I hadn’t known STEPs – and had a very bad experience with MAX in Inala before I went into hospital - I might have contacted any of these providers, and yet I know that the “providers” don’t do work. Many of them – I’m sure you unemployed people know – just make their own money. Still, I went on in the JobSearch job seekers search, and couldn’t find any jobs for people with a disability… like me. There were a heap of positions in Brisbane, but only two in Moreton Bay area – one for a casual pub assistant and one for a trainee to do Cert III administration! I guess my 40 years administration wouldn’t count.
This information has frustrated me because it does not seem to be where people with disability who are not entirely website aware can go on to find any employment which will certainly be for disabled people. DSS, employment, Job Access, jobactive and jobsearch are five different websites which promise some sort of work for disabled people, and yet promote employment to every unemployed person. Why does this government need too many websites? Why does this government say that much of the work is for disabled? Why does this government advertise “support” (providers) for people with disability which is either not advertised or useless? I don’t know if I will continue to look through these sites because if I can’t find a job, why do I keep looking?
I wish I was eligible for Make a Wish for adults.
Just a note on an ANZ video that is linked on the DES page. I did a mentorship last year where my mentor was an ANZ employee. I have never been offered a job there, nor do I know how I would apply. This video on the DES page gave me the following message: “Error loading player. No playable sources found.” Perhaps that’s just me.
There is also a link to the Employment Assistance Fund page, where people with disability can apply for funds to “purchase a range of work related modifications and services for people who are about to start a job or who are currently working, as well as those who require assistance to find and prepare for work”. They offer help for modifications within the physical work environment (I usually work on my computer and definitely need a decent office chair), information and communication devices (I certainly need a new computer to keep working!) and, for me, disability awareness training. Except in the EAF guidelines section 2.1(f) said “To be eligible for assistance a person with disability must … be a Self-employed Worker who has been working at least 20 hours per week over the last 13 weeks and earning an hourly income that is at least equivalent to the National Minimum Wage”.
For me, that stops me getting any EAF assistance because, even though I write most days, I don’t receive anything near “an hourly income that is at least equivalent to the National Minimum Wage”.
The other government job source I found is called jobactive, apparently run by JobSearch which also seems to provides job searching for people with disabilities, but you need a jobactive provider. You know what? By this time I became extremely frustrated! What is the difference between JobAccess, JobSearch and jobactive? Why three different job sourcing sites? Do they really work??
Okay, so I went into the jobactive provider search and found 1386 nationally, and 23 providers within 25km from Redcliffe – 1 x Employment Option, 2 x STEPs (which I am already registered with), 2 x IPAR Rehabilitation, 3 x Epic Employment Services, 3 x Red Cross Employment Services, 4 x MAX Employment, 8 x HELP Employment. Perhaps if I hadn’t known STEPs – and had a very bad experience with MAX in Inala before I went into hospital - I might have contacted any of these providers, and yet I know that the “providers” don’t do work. Many of them – I’m sure you unemployed people know – just make their own money. Still, I went on in the JobSearch job seekers search, and couldn’t find any jobs for people with a disability… like me. There were a heap of positions in Brisbane, but only two in Moreton Bay area – one for a casual pub assistant and one for a trainee to do Cert III administration! I guess my 40 years administration wouldn’t count.
This information has frustrated me because it does not seem to be where people with disability who are not entirely website aware can go on to find any employment which will certainly be for disabled people. DSS, employment, Job Access, jobactive and jobsearch are five different websites which promise some sort of work for disabled people, and yet promote employment to every unemployed person. Why does this government need too many websites? Why does this government say that much of the work is for disabled? Why does this government advertise “support” (providers) for people with disability which is either not advertised or useless? I don’t know if I will continue to look through these sites because if I can’t find a job, why do I keep looking?
I wish I was eligible for Make a Wish for adults.
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