This government won't stop attacking disabled people

The community is being relentlessly targeted

Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston is expected to announce more cuts to Whaikaha, the Ministry of Disabled People tomorrow. It’s expected that the disabled community will face more attacks - having already lost so many supports.

I had a terrible sinking feeling in my chest when I got the call about it. I fear this will be the final straw for so many exhausted disabled people and parents. I am desperate for folks to understand just how many cuts the disabled community and their families are facing. The hits are just relentless.

This is my earnest attempt to show how this community is facing the worst of the worst to provide the $2.9 billion needed to give landlords another tax break.

It was estimated months ago that families that include someone with a disability may be paying up to $5500 more a year under this Government. It feels like it’s only going to get worse.

Many people in the disability sector have said that Whaikaha had been underfunded from day one. Removing the key supports disabled people and their carers needed to address this underfunding is the worst possible way to address the issue. Disability Support Network chief executive Peter Reynolds told RNZ in March:

"What we don't want to see is disabled people suddenly finding that support they're dependent on being disrupted. What we don't want to see is support workers being overstressed, overworked, or indeed those without the qualifications and skills required to do the job being used because things like respite services are just not available."

"If somebody who isn't qualified to do the job ends up having to provide support because that's all the disabled person can afford under their individualised funding package, then there is a heightened risk that something could happen - either the disabled person could end up being injured or the care worker could end up being injured."

In order to provide tax relief for the already very wealthy. The coalition government has made the following cuts that have had dire consequences to the disabled community and their loved ones.

I have previously written about all of their other cuts to front line services - the cuts in this post are those that will impact the disabled community. For general cuts click here.

They are in no particular order. And do not specifically include the 5867 roles cut in the public service, which will impact delivery of services to New Zealanders.

Friendship House, which has offered counselling for two decades, had its Oranga Tamariki counselling contract discontinued with four hours’ notice. Chief Executive Neil Denney says, since then, his questions about where to send families in need have been “ignored”.

Tākai, a parenting resource hub, was closed after 30 years supporting families. Every resource on their learning platform is no longer be accessible and their website is no longer accessible. All of their community initiatives have been shuttered. Tākai is an front-line service provided by Oranga Tamariki.

Restrictions were placed on purchasing rules for disabled people's equipment and support services, with immediate effect in July. Carers NZ CEO Laurie Hilsgen told RNZ last week: "Carers were absolutely thrown under the bus by the Ministry for Disabled People and the government when they returned to a highly restrictive policy of how people could use the Carer Support subsidy. It's the only state support most carers get, and you need respite if you're a carer. You can't keep going like a machine."

The Government reinstated fees for prescription medication. A study has found facing a cost barrier in collecting a prescription was associated with a 34% higher rate of hospitalisation.

More than 400 jobs will be lost at Oranga Tamariki - the Ministry for Children. A leaked memo at Te Whatu Ora suggested the fulltime-equivalent positions of about 470 specialists and 1491 nurses would be reviewed. There were also 338 allied health employees, and 2193 management, admin and support staff. In total, 4492 FTEs may be cut.

The Government is saving $56 million over five years by ending a programme topping up the pay of disabled workers to the minimum wage. Up to 900-plus workers - mostly with intellectual disabilities - continue to be paid as low as $2 an hour to provide tax relief to landlords.

Children and families can no longer access funding or subsidies for disability support programmes, like Riding for the Disabled or swimming lessons, during school hours due to the Government’s truancy policy and changes to respite care funding. It’s expected that this will mean the end of organisations like nature therapy and neurodivergent school programmes that will no longer be able to afford to run.

The Government is no longer funding the provision of free telehealth services, including one for COVID-19. The Government also cut free COVID-related GP visits and RATs (rapid antigen tests). Health New Zealand has admitted it didn’t consult with pharmacies before changing the funding for Covid antivirals - which has seen some pharmacies stop providing the service.

Community mental health groups are on the precipice of folding due to Government cuts to frontline funding. Advocates say the funding has been halved to $5 million per year, and the Minister has also made the criteria so restrictive that very few organisations will be able to apply.

The income insurance scheme was scrapped. It would have protected workers who are suddenly disabled by illness to take time off, work reduced hours or retrain.

The Government has told Health NZ they must cut $1.4 billion from their budget. GPs say without more funding and support the New Zealand health system is headed towards a “complete collapse within the next two years”.

Wait times for elective surgery have ballooned in recent months. Hospital doctors have been told to make beds and clean sinks. They say that claims there isn’t a hiring freeze in health don’t tell the full story.

"It's smoke and mirrors," one doctor told RNZ. "So it's officially not a freeze but on the front line, the reality is it's a freeze, because people go off on maternity leave, and you can't replace them without a long-winded process to get authority to recruit."

Health New Zealand has ordered an end to double shifts and imposed new limitations on replacing sick staff in wards during the day to save money.

The government ended public transport subsidies which were heavily relied on by many in the disabled community. In most regions, young people aged 13-15, and secondary students aged 16-19, all saw their fares double on buses and trains. Children aged 5-12 also no longer travel for free and must also pay the fares set in their region. Some councils have stumped up to continue subsidies.

Benefit changes legislated under urgency in February will mean people on the equivalent of a disability benefit and their carers will lose out on more than $2300 a year by 2028 - a change equivalent to about 5 per cent of the recipient's income. These changes may see an extra 7000 children pulled into poverty under one measure, while a further 7000 would be pulled under when using a broader measure.

The Government reduced services for wheelchair users in March.

The funding for the 15-year long Growing Up in New Zealand project - research that tracked 6000 children to give us insight and understanding into poverty in Aotearoa - has been cut. The project specifically looked at the impact of disability on poverty rates.

The Government scrapped another survey gathering key child poverty data further reducing accountability for policies that aren’t based in research.

Funding was slashed for the Hawaiki Hou programme aimed at supporting women, girls, Māori, disabled, tamariki and rangatahi to participate in sport.

Funding cuts were made to the Warmer Kiwi Homes programme and public housing maintenance in the Budget.

The Government launched a review of the Holidays Act aiming to reduce sick leave entitlements - which would impact home support workers and carers of disabled people (as well as all other working New Zealanders who aren’t wealthy).

About a third of free budgeting services say they have lost government funding.

The head of Pharmac quit over interference by the Government. David Seymour insisted Pharmac must not consider the Treaty of Waitangi's place in the health sector.

Against all research and expert advice, the government has announced sanctions for job seekers. Sole parents, many who are carers of disabled children, face losing 50% of their payment. A comprehensive piece of research into these sanctions found: "little evidence in support of using obligations and sanctions (as in the current system) to change behaviour; rather, there is research indicating that they compound social harm and disconnectedness".

Out of the budget, no funding was given to learning support in schools. Instead funding was given to charter schools so the likes of the tax-free Destiny Church could run their own school. The Government spent $153 million for Act’s charter schools, which could have fully fund 700 full-time teacher aides at step 4. In that same budget, the Special Needs Intervention funding saw a whopping $41.2M cut.

Photo by nikko macaspac

Why is any of this important? Households with disabled children were 1.5 times more likely to earn under $40,000 a year, compared to households that only had non-disabled children. 63% of carers of disabled children say they do not have enough money or only just enough money.

This government is actively harming the disabled community in order to provide tax relief to landlords. If you voted for this, you have an obligation to minimise the harm you have caused to the community.

There is a cost to tax cuts and someone always pays - increasingly it is disabled people and their families. Please, please speak out and stand with the disabled community and their families.