CCS Disability Action Condemns Government's Benefit Reforms: Disabled People will be Unfairly Impacted

Media release
28 February 2024

CCS Disability Action, a leading support and advocacy organisation for disabled people, strongly condemns the Government’s recently announced benefit reforms.

Chief Executive Mel Smith identifies their potential harm to communities already proven to be disadvantaged by New Zealand’s existing welfare systems.

"It is clear that these benefit sanctions have been designed without meaningful input from people with lived experience of disability and demonstrate a lack of understanding of the realities disabled people and their families face," explains Mel Smith.

The reforms fail to address the significant barriers that prevent disabled people from accessing the Supported Living Payment (SLP). Securing eligibility is a long and difficult process. The SLP also doesn’t have the flexibility to work well for people whose ability to work may change over time due to their impairment. Instead, many disabled people find themselves on Jobseeker Support with medical exceptions, despite being medically assessed as unable to work.

Disabled people are disproportionately affected by poverty and experience poor long-term health outcomes. A staggering 21.5% of disabled individuals cannot afford necessary medical care, compared to only 12.7% of non-disabled individuals, for example.

“The barriers to accessing the SLP are numerous, and until they are adequately addressed, any benefit sanctions imposed on people on Jobseeker Support will exacerbate the struggles faced by disabled people,” she says.

CCS Disability Action urges the government to reconsider these reforms and engage in meaningful dialogue with the disability community.

“The announced changes risk further marginalising disabled people and their families, perpetuating inequality and hardship,” says Mel Smith.

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For further information contact:

Lucy Green
National Manager Marketing Communications & Fundraising
CCS Disability Action
Phone: 027 434 9256
Email: Lucy.Green@ccsDisabilityAction.org.nz

CCS Disability Action background information

CCS Disability Action is the largest disability support and advocacy organisation in Aotearoa New Zealand.

We support people with all types of impairments and have been working alongside disabled people since 1935. We are at the forefront of service provision, advocacy and information sharing in the disability sector. We partner with disabled people, their families and whānau to remove barriers at an individual, community and national level. Our vision is to see every disabled person and whānau hauā interwoven into the lives of their whānau and community.

We provide direct support to around 5,000 children, young people, and adults through our 18 branches, which operate from Northland to Invercargill. Our support focuses on breaking down barriers. 

We also run New Zealand’s nationwide Mobility Parking Permit scheme. This scheme currently supports more than 160,000 people to access their communities and facilities more easily. Our subsidiaries, Lifemark and BarrierFree, advocate for and provides universal design consultancy to improve the accessibility of New Zealand’s housing and built environments.

We receive a mixture of government and charitable funding.