Australian government extending age for "crackdown" on DSP recipients

[alex3619]

I doubt it, i've heard our economy is rounding the bend and things are getting better! Should be, Obama has been in office for 6 years now, and another 2 to work his magic!

GG

This is what has been said right up until the eve of every major crisis. I think the former US head of energy, I forget his exact title and name, who was in Australia this last week, said it best. The US has got every energy forecast wrong ... every one. The reason is simple. They are looking in the mirror. They presume the future is like the past. It almost never is. Trends do not tell you what is really going on, because the data used does not capture every factor.

Its the same as long term treasury forecasts. Almost every one is wrong. They simply have no way of using math to capture the complexity of what is happening. Its impossible, not just hard. This has been known to mathematicians for some decades, but most economists don't want to hear it .... they are modern day soothsayers and would loose a lot of prestige. Economics is still useful as the analyses help you devise strategies. What they cannot do is predict the future. Also many "laws" in economics are really rules of thumb, rough guesstimations.

The fundamental issues leading to the economic crises are unresolved, in fact they are even more deeply entrenched. Its not a question of whether there will be another big crisis, but when. The same issues that prevent economists from predicting the economic forecast prevent anyone from being sure about when and how the crisis will occur. The only certainty is that the crisis will occur.

The more the US allows its huge national debt to go unchecked, the bigger the risk from major national crisis. This threat is, in my opinion, capable of permanently destroying the US' position in the world. Its a much worse threat than terrorism.

If the US goes under economically, and I don't mean like the last minor crisis (yes, I consider it minor) then the whole world economy will sink into depression.

Just to be clear, all treasuries and most economists over the world have this blindspot. Its not just the US. Our current, ahem, illustrious government is lamenting that it wasn't able to meet its budget forecasts, from just months ago, and is about to pass a mini budget. And so it goes.

PS @ggingues, I am almost sure you were sarcastic, but I thought I should reply anyway as there are important and relevant points here, and its part of what is driving the scapegoating of the disabled.

 

[Snow Leopard]

New DSP cases to be assessed entirely by govt doctors. How is this supposed to save money?

https://theconversation.com/why-scrape-the-barnacles-off-a-ship-of-fools-35485

So as well as deciding to financially kneecap bulk-billing GPs, the Federal Government has also decided to ignore the lessons of recent history and the evidence of those who who would know and have DSP recipients ‘assessed’ by doctors hired for the purpose.

Hands up any of the peak medical, welfare or disability groups who lobbied for this?

Anyone?

Didn’t think there were any.

I won’t reiterate my reasons for thinking that this is a brain dead idea. It can only be seen as a direct insult to GPs and DSP applicants. The Minister reckons they busted welfare fraudsters worth $9m last year. The Government would make twice that back just by getting one or two high net-worth individuals to pay their taxes properly. Or, dare I say it, have a few less expensive overseas trips or fancy dinners themselves. No. it’s not a savings measure at all. It will cost much more than it saves, once all the appeals and reinstatements of entitlements are done. It may even cost some lives, if the experience of a similar scheme in the UK is anything to go by.

 

[Sean]

The Minister reckons they busted welfare fraudsters worth $9m last year.

Out of about 800 000 DSP recipients, costing around $16 billion a year. Yep, really cracked a major crime wave and source of savings there. I wonder how every other sector of the community, including politicians, would come out of a compare and contrast?

Also worth asking if that was just cases of fraudulently receiving the DSP. Or if it included a bunch of poor schmucks legitimately on it who just got busted earning a few extra dollars once or twice a year to try to pay basic survival level bills, or buy the kids a simple birthday present, or just running unintentionally foul of the ludicrously complex and restrictive rules DSP recipients have to live by.

No. it’s not a savings measure at all.

It clearly has nothing to do with saving money, it is a punitive hate-mongering terror-inflicting exercise, on some of the weakest and most vulnerable in our society. It is designed to make having a serious disability something to be ashamed of, and the DSP as degrading an existence as possible, to warn people off even thinking about applying for it, or complaining about it if they are already on it. It is designed to kill of the DSP completely.

This is going to get very very nasty. The UK Tories got nothing on this mob.

 

[SilverbladeTE]

Head of ATOS put his wages up, iirc it's about £2.6? million a year the son of a bitch earns now.

Time to get rid of corporations and the Elite, forever. Sigh.

 

[Sean]

Update on the 'crackdown'.

http://www.theguardian.com/australi...kdown-will-only-apply-to-people-aged-under-36

 

[Sean]

Head of ATOS put his wages up, iirc it's about £2.6? million a year the son of a bitch earns now.

Pretty cheap for selling out your basic morality.

I would have asked for a lot more.

 

[MeSci]

Pretty cheap for selling out your basic morality.

I would have asked for a lot more.

I think that calls for a (I believe he buys people's moralities)

 

[MeSci]

Update on the 'crackdown'.

http://www.theguardian.com/australi...kdown-will-only-apply-to-people-aged-under-36

Wow - is the cost of living very high in Oz? The rates of DSP seem much higher than the ESA in the UK, unless the max rate includes the equivalent of our PIP. Our ESA is less than Aus $200 (plus PIP if you can get it - I couldn't), but the max DSP for the lowest band (under 18) for an independent-living person is $274.25, plus a pension supplement.

But then I have heard the the UK rates are some of the lowest in the world...yet they supposedly attract benefit claimants from abroad.

Ah, those gold-paved streets...

 

[Sean]

Important info in this comment on the article:

http://www.theguardian.com/australi...pply-to-people-aged-under-36#comment-46323940

 

[Sean]

Wow - is the cost of living very high in Oz?

Yes indeed. Rent in particular is shockingly high.

Might seem like a reasonable amount, and it is a lot better than it was 10 years ago, when it was truly abysmal. But compared to the cost of living, it is still below the OECD average, I believe. So not that flash, really, and about to get worse, I fear, much worse.