Downtown Community Ministry

14 March 2007

Govt Bill threatens the vulnerable

The 'onus of responsibility on the Government to care for society's most vulnerable is at stake under a proposed new law,' says Downtown Community Ministry's Project Margin Coordinator Di Landy.

Di tells Parliament's Social Services Select Committee today that legislating the Social Security Amendment Bill is likely to increase tenfold the suffering and hardship experienced by people seeking benefit entitlements.

Currently, two High Court decisions are in place to protect the safety of those vulnerable people who miss out on getting all they are entitled to.

One places the responsibility on Work and Income to fully inform and provide all entitlements to beneficiaries and the other ensures client payments are backdated to when they initially met the criteria. Both will disappear if the Bill is approved.

"Cutting these basic protections voids the Government of responsibility and presumes people like this know the department's processes and laws and that they hold the basic literacy skills to negotiate their way through an application.

"If the health of a society is measured by the care the most vulnerable members receive, then this Bill gives us a bad diagnosis," says Di.

ENDS

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