Jobs Minister Kelly O’Dwyer’s assertion that ‘there is nothing more important and fundamental to a person’s wellbeing than a job’ (Age 20/3) will be news to many of my non working patients. This is especially so for the ones who can’t quite pass the very tight test for a disability support pension but who at the age of 60 with no computer literacy, are definitely unemployable because of illness.
The news that they can now go digital will not help. They will be left to wonder when the next computer generated robo-letter falsely accusing them of getting too much welfare will arrive.
I hope the assertion that ‘we cannot consign people to a life of welfare’ does not mean that it plans to eliminate disability support pensions. We have the tightest welfare rules in any developed nation. We don’t want to make things even harder.
Tim Woodruff
President
Doctors Reform Society