Who said poetry serves no useful purpose? Samantha Connor's poem of complaint

Samantha Connor's poem of complaint has had the desired effect, yielding a refund and a response from the Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre and a promise to address the problem.

Earlier in the week I wrote this piece (and published here in the online publication The Stringer) about Samantha's  response to her attempt to book a ticket for a Stephen Fry gig at the Perth Exhibition and Convention Centre, only to be told that as a wheelchair user she would be charged an extra $20 because, apparently, the wheelchair bays are in premium spots.

Tired of writing complaint letters to agencies who discriminate against people with disabilities she tried something different.

She wrote them a poem.

Within days this response was sent to the editor of The Stringer, an online publication that ran my piece and also publishes Samantha's writings on disability.

Hello,

My name is Meg Coffey and I am the marketing consultant for PCEC. In regards to your post today, I wish to advise you that PCEC have worked together with Ticketek in resolving the ticketing structure/pricing for Stephen Fry: Telling Tales, to be held in the Riverside Theatre.

PCEC have arranged reimbursements to wheelchair patrons that have been disadvantaged by the ticketing pricing structure set for the show.

Moving forward, PCEC and Ticketek will work together with concert promoters, to ensure wheelchair and carer seats are all priced within the same pricing category for shows to ensure no-one is disadvantaged by demand.

We want to ensure the experience of patrons in the venue is an enjoyable one and not marred by their experience when purchasing tickets for in-house shows.

Many thanks,
Meg

The Convention and Exhibition Centre are to be commended for taking action, however their reply is admission that they were knowingly gouging and discriminating against people living with a disability by applying an additional charge. 

Many people were outraged by the Convention Centre's gall in the first place to think they could rip people off and then try to extricate themselves. One person described the PCEC's reply as lame and 'as weak as  piss':

'In other words, we tried to rip people off, got caught and now we are exposed to be being "rip off" merchants! and because this lady is on to us!! we better lift our game' 

Samantha also appeared on Perth ABC morning radio and ABC News (here) where she said:

'I wrote the poem because sometimes something with an amusing twist is a better way to go, it keeps it light hearted. You can write letters until the cows come home and you don't always get the response that you want.'

As Samantha pointed out to the ABC, the problem of access and pricing to sports and entertainment venues is common for people living with disabilities in Perth and she called for more venues to look at ways to improve access, seating, ticketing and amenity for wheelchair users and people living with disability.

Samantha noted how she had been contacted by many people raising concerns about discrimination against people with disabilities by venues in Perth. She wrote:

'It's amazing how much discrimination goes on every day, unnoticed by most. We start talking about this issue, which was raised by another wheelchair user. 

Prue tells us that she can't go into the licensed area when she sees a show at another area because there's a step, and the downstairs is unlicensed - a friend can't bring her a drink downstairs. Bronwyn tells us that she has to pay eighty bucks more to attend a concert with her daughter (who is a wheelchair user) and fights for the right to sit with her kids Darren says that there is no gold season ticket at the rugby, and you can only choose between diamond (at exorbitant prices) or crappy silver. Crispin tells us that two grandstands are unavailable (no lift access) at the NIB stadium and that sports fans can't get in to see a game. Someone else, I forget who, said that going to see the cricket was impossible because the shaded seats were inaccessible and your choices were left of field in full sun. 

It's pretty interesting that the stuff we work on at systemic and policy level is all about 'increasing participation' but people literally can't get in the door, to work as well as to play or just do the things ordinary Australians do. I'm not off to Stephen Fry, for a number of reasons - one of them is that no matter what the price is, I'm still not able to go to the event unless I go alone - the wheelchair spaces are in the premium area, which have been booked out by others. My family/friends would have to sit in the bottom bit whilst I sat up the top. Yeah, nah.

I really liked that the user group and the access group for the new Stadium were and are listened to and involved all the way through. I really hope it won't be another disastrous Perth Arena in terms of access. We live in hope!'

A complaint about disability discrimation written as a poem

My colleague and friend Samantha Connor is a renowned and fearsome Western Australian disability activist, advocate, writer and campaigner.

Samantha is one of the most committed and innovative campaigners and activists I know.

You can read about Samantha here and here.  Her writings on disability issues on The Stringer are here.

This week Samantha tried to book a ticket for a Stephen Fry gig at the much lauded Perth Exhibition Centre, only to be told that as a wheelchair user she would be charged an extra $20 because, apparently, the wheelchair bays are in premium spots.

Little do the Perth Exhibition Centre know who they are up against! Samantha was fired to action by this blatant example of disability discrimination.

Here is Samantha's brilliant response.  I will keep you posted on the outcome.

It's almost twenty dollars more to book for Stephen Fry because blah blah Perth Exhibition Centre suck and the wheelchair bays are in premium spots and blah blah this is discriminatory but omfg I am so bored with writing complaint letters and yelling at people.
 

So I wrote this poem instead and sent it in an email.
 

To the manager at the Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre.
 

I wrote you a poem, because I could not be arsed writing yet another complaint letter. It is about the fact that you have charged wheelchair users almost twenty dollars extra because your wheelchair seats are in the 'premium' seating space and therefore you have discriminated against people with disability by charging us more.

Please take it seriously and read it through. Thanks. I'll expect a reply this week. By Friday.
 

Tell me why
I should not sue
The living daylights
Out of you

I am a crip
I cannot walk
But I can drive
And see, and talk

I went to book
For Stephen Fry
And looked, aghast
and shouted, why?

For all the crips
We must pay more
For wheelchair seating
(although we're poor)

Twenty bucks more
Because we sit
Illegal, bad
And really shit

Go have a look
at the DDA
Discrimination
is not okay

You have four days
(cos I'm a saint :D)
Then its DDA
HREOC complaint

A giant rant
Media too
I would fix it
If I was you.

 

Love,
Samantha xox

The looming privatisation and Serco-isation of the NDIS

Rick Morton has written an article in The Australian (sadly behind a pay wall) in response to plans by Serco, the British multinational services corporation, to identify business opportunities and develop a business case to enable Serco to make money out of  Australia's National Disability Insurance Scheme. 

Rick is kind enough to quote me in the article.

Rick's article was a response to plans by Serco to employ an NDIS expert to “analyse the ­market and determine what opportuni­ties exist” for Serco.

Serco's plans provide further evidence of the looming privatisation and corporate takeover of the NDIS and the state based systems of disability care and support.

The amount of money (see the graph above) and opportunities available under the NDIS  are immensely attractive to for- profit corporations who see huge opportunities for profit taking.

The $22 billion NDIS has been designed along market lines and market based principles to directly fund eligible individuals who can choose how and when to spend their money on disability supports and services.

Federal and State Governments are keen to open up the disability sector to greater competition from corporate and business providers.

They are using the opportunity presented by the NDIS to privatise care and support for people with disabilities, extend corporate and for-profit delivery of programs and services into disability services and reduce the role of State Governments in providing for the care and wellbeing of people living with disabilities

 

The Federal Government is also moving to marginalise people living with disabilities from the governance and management of the scheme by replacing the Board of the NDIS with corporate and business leaders. The federal government has placed an advertisement in the Australian Financial Review  for new board members who must have "substantial board experience either in a large listed company or a significant government business enterprise".

Serco sights on NDIS billions

THE AUSTRALIAN JULY 24, 2015 12:00 AM

Rick Morton

Social Affairs Reporter

Sydney

Global services conglomerate Serco is eyeing the $22 billion ­national disability insurance scheme as a source of new profits and is hiring a “subject matter ­expert” to advance­ a business case.

The company — best known in Australia for running the governmen­t’s outsourced immig­­ration detention centres, including a facility on Christmas Island — wants its NDIS expert to “analyse the ­market and determine what opportuni­ties exist”.

It is the first sign the company aims to move into the disability sector. People who will use the NDIS said while the move was “not shocking, it is concerning”.

“We’ve known the NDIS would open up the marketplace for new providers — that’s not new — but it is worrying when we have the big players come knocking because you wonder how that will affect the mix,” one advocate said.

The scheme will grant almost all funding to individuals who qualify and they will choose how and when to spend their money on disability supports, such as new wheelchairs or therapy.

Serco is part of two parliamentary inquiries in Western Australia, into services at its largest­ hospital, the Fiona Stanley Hospital, and prisoner transport. It has con­tracts for non-clinical care at the hospital and for court security and prisoner transport in the state.

It was stripped of its respon­s­ib­ilities for sterilising hospital equipment after a breach last year and another this year in which tools were returned for surgeries with tissue and blood on them.

The Barnett government told parliament last month that it would not renew the Serco transport contract in June.

In Britain, the firm became ­notorious for charging the government to track prisoners it could not find and for misreporting statistics on a health contract. It has been slammed by rights groups for its refugee work. Serco Watch convener Colin Penter said it had a record of “incredibly dysfunctional and dystopian practice”.

“They just see this as a commercial transaction, the lived ­experience of people with di­s­abilities is peripheral,” he said.

Morton notes how Serco is currently facing a major cash flow and financial crises

Serco Global, the parent employ­ing 100,000 on 600 outsourcing contracts, has issued several profit warnings in the past two years. Last year’s accounts showed an operating loss of about $2.7bn.

The SME (subject matter expert) will act as a liaison point between key stakeholders and Serco working to identify and scope opport­unities to support the implementation and delivery of services within the NDIS market,” its job advertisement says.

“You will be responsible for devisi­ng business development strategies and plans for Serco Citizen­ Services that will achieve short, med­ium and long-term profitable growth targets.”

A Serco spokesman said the company always sought to “add value” to the delivery of public service­s. “We have been recognised through audits and awards for safe, effective and innovative ­delivery,” he said

'Nothing about us without us': The Barnett Government and social policy making that excludes end users

photo of Samantha Connor courtesy of ABC

My colleague and friend Samantha Connor is a renowned and fearsome Western Australian disability activist, advocate, writer and campaigner. (You can read about Samantha here and here). Her writings on disability issues on The Stringer are here.)

 

Today she has a letter in the West Australian newspaper in response to a recent story and statement by the Disability Minister Helen Morton who claimed the WA had the best disability system in Australia and that WA's system of providing support and services to people living with disabilities called My Way, was far better than the Federal Government's pilot NDIS system currently being trialled in WA. 

 

Samantha writes:

 

'"It’s unfortunate that Minister Helen Morton and the WA Government has decided that it’s to be ‘My Way or the Highway’ (WA’s own services best for disabled, 2.9.15). Announcing that WA has the best scheme might be in the best interests of both government and providers, but what about people with disability themselves?

 

The evaluation for the two disability schemes, the Commonwealth National Disability Insurance Scheme, and the State based My Way scheme, will not be completed for many months. Preliminary feedback indicates that the jury is still out, with many end users critical of aspects of the State based scheme and others finding the Commonwealth scheme difficult to engage with.

 WA has a regrettable track record of declaring ourselves ‘the best’ when it comes to disability care and support. That flies in the face of the commentary of many people with disability and their families who have found our State system not only lacking, but appalling.'

 

As a disability advocate, a person with a disability and a parent of children with a disability, I ask our State Government to think carefully about making decisions for us and speaking upon our behalf. We understand that this is about your carefully built State systems and your individual interests – but for we people with disability of Western Australia, this is about our lives."

 

As Samantha rightly notes, politicians and State Governments are using the roll out of the NDIS for their own political purposes, as much as they aspire to assist people with disabilities.

The WA Government's is actively using the NDIS to serve its own political and policy agenda. 

The Barnett government presents an idealised picture of a disability system that they claim effectively serves the needs of people living with disabilities, despite evidence to the contrary and is using the opportunities presented by the NDIS to extend its agenda of privatisation and outsourcing of government funded and provided health, social and community services.

 

The Minister has come to rely on West Australian parochialism, spin, overinflated political rhetoric and dismissal of her critics as a way to conceal major policy failures across a number of her portfolio responsibilities, including disability, child protection and children's services, mental health and suicide prevention.

 

The Disability Services Commission, who is fighting to protect and maintain its position of power and influence over WA's disability sector, has also shown itself willing to engage in political manoeuvrings in its support for the Barnett Government's agenda. It released this statement yesterday

 

" Getting additional resources is important, but what the WA State Government is focussed on, is making sure WA gets the best NDIS in the nation - a system that will provide the best supports and services to people with disability, their families and carers. The supports that people with disability need to live good lives in their local communities. The individual packages costs in the Lower South West may be lower than the national average, but this may not be the case when the Cockburn-Kwinana area rolls in.

 The learnings from the two trials of the NDIS in WA will help inform how the NDIS will operate in WA into the future. But, the State Government can’t wait until the trials are over to start the conversation with the Commonwealth about rolling out an NDIS for all people with disability in WA. The Minister for Disability Services wants to start the conversation now. She has been told by many people that WA NDIS My Way works – they like the support provided by My Way Coordinators who know them, their family and their community.

 The Minister wants to make sure we have an NDIS in WA that is local, builds on the best of our current system and includes the additional State and Commonwealth funding required to meet the needs of all people with disability. This is what is most important."

As Samantha rightly points out the people whose lives are directly affected by all this political posturing- people living with disabilities, their families and carers- are actively excluded from these debates and decisions.

Similar comments were made today by Women With Disabilities WA Inc (WWDWA), an organisation run by and for people with disabilities, who released the following statement:

The organisation believes that it is counter to the original principle of self management to have able-bodied professionals and politicians who don’t personally use the services under trial speaking on behalf of people with disabilities.

There is little evidence in any of the articles that promote the WA My Way scheme that the real experts were interviewed - people with disabilities who are actually using the My Way scheme.

Chair of WWDWA Inc, Ms Zeliha Iscel, said: “One of the central tenets of the disability rights movement is “nothing about us without us”. The current WA My Way and National NDIS schemes both fail to embody this principle and therefore are at risk of failing people with disabilities and our families.”

Ms Iscel stressed that the reality of the My Way and NDIS trials is a lot more complex than the current media reports and government spokespeople have made it out to be. She further emphasised, “It is far too early to be making definite statements about which trial is the best for Western Australia.”

Coordinator of WWDWA Inc, Ms Rayna Lamb says there is a risk of people with disabilities being steamrolled into the NDIS My Way scheme because of the WA government's insistence on WA exceptionalism, regardless of what is actually best for people with disabilities.

Women With Disabilities WA Inc strongly urges the media and government spokespeople to go directly to the people with disabilities and those who support us to get real experience and knowledge on how both trials are running so far. Ms Iscel said: “To do anything less is to treat people with disabilities as perpetual children who are not permitted a voice in our own lives. In 2015, this is unacceptable”.

WWDWA Inc is run by women with disabilities and provides systemic advocacy and peer support for women with disabilities. http://wwdwa.org.au/
 

Journalists who "get" social policy

For 18 years Adele Horin was the Sydney Morning Herald's  social affairs correspondent where she wrote important and ground breaking articles about social policy issues and the development and implementation of social policy by Federal and State Governments.

Along with her former colleague at the Sydney Morning Herald Elisabeth Wynhausen (whose website is backstreetbondi),  Adele Horin was a journalist who reported on social policy issues from a strong social justice perspective.

She has a great ability to write about the myriad of ways that social policy decisions impact on the daily lives of ordinary people.

 In  her final article for the SMH For richer and poorer the battle goes on Horin writes:

Harsh and simplistic solutions to complex social problems are still trotted out by the rich and powerful whose encounters with the lives of the poor are usually non-existent.

It is the same story in the schools debate. Twenty-four years ago I wrote, ''If state schools are to avoid their fate as repositories of the poor, and thus electorally dispensable, the middle class must be wooed back.'' They weren't.

The Gonski report presents a compelling economic and social argument for equalising opportunities for children in public schools. No subject is more important than improving the life chances of poor children through the best education possible.

But the debate appears lost, as the Prime Minister, once dedicated to the cause, panders to a middle-class with kids in private schools who consider themselves hard-up. She promises to give extra funds she doesn't have to wealthy schools while the Opposition Leader claims rich schools are the true victims of funding injustice. Plus c¸a change.
Mandatory detention of refugees began in 1992 under then prime minister Paul Keating. A lot of us overlooked the development in far-away Port Hedland at the time. All these years later, harsh treatment of refugees of a kind we know is bound to cause mental illness and suicides remains our only response, and the ''regional solution'' is no close

Adele Horin now works as a freelance journalist and reports on the interface between aged care policy and the experiences of Australians getting older. Her articles are published at her website Adele Horin: Coming of Age and in online publications such as the Global Mail.

Her latest article  The New  Nasty Sibling Rivalry looks at the ways families are responding to the demands of caring for ageing parents and the consequences of Federal Government policies that often require the sale of the family home to pay for the costs of care for ageing parents.

The paradox of the Paralympics

Excellent piece here by Amelia Gentleman on the paradox of the Paralympics- the disconnect between the positive attitudes to disability on display inside the Olympic stadiums and  the experience of people with disabilities in the wider British society where intensive Government cuts are creating immense suffering for disabled people and increasing hostility towards people with disabilities is resulting in a soaring of hate crimes.

Many radical and activist groups such as Disabled People against Cuts have campaigned and protested against aspects of the Paralympics such as corporate sponsorship by large corporations such as Atos  and cuts to services for people with disabilities. Atos  who was a major sponsor of the Paralympics is contracted by the UK Government as administrators of assessments that rob disabled people of their benefits.

In this piece on the website of Disabled People against Cuts disability activist Dave King argues that the Paralympics are the precise opposite of the values of disability liberation. King writes:

But with the Paralympics we have seen the addition into this cocktail of a supremely powerful and toxic ingredient, the opportunity for liberals to feel good about themselves for supporting the underdog and ‘progress in the fight against prejudice’. It is this thick coating of syrup which has confused even radical disability rights advocates, and is making it almost impossible for critics to speak out, except about the blatantly obvious outrage of Atos as sponsors. But the truth is that, despite all the hopeful talk about how the Paralympics are going to revolutionise people’s ideas about disability, the ideas and values at the core of the Paralympics are the precise opposite of the values of disability liberation. (I write this as a disabled person, one who has undergone one of Atos’ medical assessments and been found wanting, and who is suffering financially as a consequence.)

In the Guardian  Amelia Gentleman writes:

There has been a clear reluctance among officials this week to sour the happy atmosphere by talking about the Paralympics paradox – the difficulty of reconciling the amazing excitement around the Games, which has portrayed Britain globally as a place where positive attitudes to disability reign, and a bleaker reality that kicks in beyond Stratford.

The guide for journalists covering the event is explicit in its instructions that disability and any issues around it should not be the focus of reporting. It stipulates that reporters should concentrate on "performance, sporting ambition, training, competition and the emotions associated with winning and losing". Most athletes contacted to discuss the broader issues of disability for this piece declined to be interviewed. But many disabled visitors were quick to comment on the disconnection between their experiences within the park and their everyday lives at a time when in addition to cuts to services and benefits payments, charities such as Scope have been documenting worsening attitudes and official figures show that incidents of disability hate crime have soared to their highest ever levels.

Kalya Franklin, a disability campaigner whose Benefit Scrounging Scum blog has charted the rising problems faced by disabled people at a time of cuts to services and benefits, was amazed at the ease of her journey to Stratford from Birmingham, describing it as "the smoothest journey I've ever done on public transport". "People were there waiting to offer help – that's very unusual. There were much higher levels of staffing. That's not typical, nor is seeing lots of portable ramps around," she said.

She was delighted to be at the event, but like many, she was struggling with the Paralympics paradox.

"It's a utopian fantasy of where we need to move towards as a society," she said, pausing for a moment at Stratford station (interrupted on two occasions in the space of five minutes by transport staff asking if she needed assistance). "It's brilliant, because this has shown that with the right attitude, will and financing, it can be done."

The sporting event was for her, like any sporting occasion, a bit of escapism from daily problems, but she was anxious that attention to the pressing issues facing people with disabilities should not be deflected while the country basks in the international congratulations for having mounted a sellout Paralympic event. She pointed to a planned 20% cut in the disability living allowance (DLA), announced in the 2010 budget, in particular, arguing the that extra money, for employed and unemployed claimants to help with the extra cost of disability, had helped finance the extra cost of care and transport for many disabled visitors to the Games.

"What the public haven't realised about the Paralympians is how many of them are completely reliant on DLA. Although they are superfit athletes it doesn't mean they aren't also disabled and have mobility needs and care needs in their day-to-day lives," she said.

In memory of Wolf Wolfensberger (1934-2011)

My friend and colleague Erik Leipoldt has written this piece on his blog in memory of the academic and disability advocate Professor Wolf Wolfensberger who died recently. As Erik points Wolfensberger was one of the most influential thinkers and practitioner in the disability field worldwide and his work had a significant effect on the lives of people with disabilities. Wolfensberger's ideas changed  the way professionals, policy makers, governments and service providers think about and respond to people with disabilities.

Erik writes:

"Dr Wolfensberger had a strong commitment to people made vulnerable in a society where individualism, utilitarianism and hedonism reign. He made a huge contribution to people with disabilities. He was a visionary, a devastating analyst and honest critic.

......In 1999, seven major developmental disability organizations in the US proclaimed Dr Wolfensberger one of the 35 parties that had been the most impactful on "mental retardation" worldwide in the 20th century. Dr Wolfensberger's work was also recognised by the US magazine 'Exceptional Parent' as one of the great 7 contributions to the lives of people with disabilities, along with Salk and the polio vaccine, braille, Americans with Disabilities Act and the wheelchair.

.....He was perhaps best known for developing social role valorization theory from his, and Nirje's, concepts of normalisation. Social role valorization has been taught to many using and running disability services, and applied to various degrees, in government policies and service practice.

.........Dr Wolfensberger also developed the concept of citizen advocacy, facilitating long-term relationships between a person with disability (or other vulnerable people)and a volunteer citizen.

.............Many people who have disabilities have benefited from his work in a change in focus from disability as a medical issue, or captives of care to one where a good life means living with others and in settings that are normally valued in our society. His work was instrumental in the deinstitutionalisation of thousands of people with disabilities. It has informed disability advocacy. I am aware that in his own life he personally modeled compassionate service to 'needy people', a much used Wolfensberger phrase."

Economics and the failure to understand the experience of people with disabilities

image courtesy of AFDO

The ideas in this piece were the result of comments made by Taryn Harvey (see below)

Economics (and economists) try to create a world in the image of their economic theory. In particular, they try to show that market solutions are the best way to address social and economic problems and are always good for people and for communities. In public policy economists provide the justification for building a world based on markets.

Most economists believe in a self regulating market system- a world in which markets collectively allocate resources, efficiently set prices and determine the distribution of income.

In the world of economic theory markets are supposed to provide for all human needs and are inherently good for people and communities. Of course in the real world in which we all live, such economic theory is frankly rubbish.

Economists fail to acknowledge that their ideas, theories and prescriptions are based on half truths and often undermine and destroy communities and disadvantage people who are already marginalized, such as people with disabilities.

In his book The Dismal Science: How Thinking like an Economist Undermines Community Stephen Marglin dismiss market driven economic theory as inherently destructive for public policy, for disadvantaged groups and for communities. When markets become a sphere unto themselves, an autonomous system to not just run the economy, but a key driver of public policy and the basis for organising society is a whole, Marglin believes that economics (and markets) destroy human communities.

Marglin argues that in the area of the labour market economic theory does particular damage.

I was reminded of Marglin's critique of mainstream economic and market theory and its destructive impact on public policy when I read this piece in The Australian quoting Economist Mark Woden who reckons that the Gillard Government should reduce the payment of the disability support benefit in order to provide an increased incentive to recipients to enter the workforce.

Here is a brief commentary on Woden's suggestion  by Taryn Harvey, CEO of the Developmental Disability Council of WA, who has a decade of experience in disability policy, including employment. She is also a Local Government Councilor for an inner city local government authority in Perth.

And what would Mark Wooden, an economist, actually understand about how the Disability Support Pension works and how it impacts on people's behaviour? Oh THAT"s right...people behave in a purely "economically rational" way. Economists know... diddly about how people actually make decisions and weigh up pros and cons in a real environment. We've had a decade of policies based on economists theories and they have had NO IMPACT. Governments and bureaucracy have been ineffective because they lack the capacity for insightful policy development. They lack the capacity to actually understand what their lofty ideas actually look like in practice and how people live day to day..

So Mark, let me just explain something to you. Most people on the disability support pension have a life long disability that has quite an impact on functioning. Some of these people have a level of disability that means that employment as YOU understand it is unlikely. That doesn't mean that they CAN'T work or that they don't WANT to work, it just means that people like you can only cope with understanding people who work just like you do in jobs just like yours in worlds just like yours.

Now, if Governments actually gave employers better support. In fact, if Government actually LEAD BY EXAMPLE and employed people with disabilities then perhaps more people on DSP would be able to get work. Maybe if DEEWR actually let disability employment services do good work instead of telling them exactly how to do their jobs they might be able to actually get work done. If DEEWR spent LESS on "contract management" and so-called "accountability" and red tape and MORE on actual support then we might see things improve.

So Mark's solution is to cut the DSP. GREAT one Mark. Excellent idea. That will give them the kick up the pants they need Take a group of people, many of whom have difficulty entering the paid workforce or staying there and increasing their earnings and CUT THEIR INCOME. Oh yes, never mind about the fact that they are already often have higher costs of living because of their disability.

They can't.  Why doesn't the cause none of you have actually managed any meaningful or insightful policy development, and don't have Government organisations who can actually implement insightful policy.

This ISN"T an insoluble issue - it just takes policy makers to stop thinking they know it all.