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Dr George Taleporos is a 39-year-old disability rights advocate. He has and is wheelchair bound but says that hasn’t stopped him from finding work.
Although he knows the welfare system isn’t perfect, he thinks more people with a disability should be working.
“We have a system where people often feel that they're better off not trying to get a job,” he says.
As of 1 July 2012, certain recipients under the age of 35 were expected to develop plans to help them build their capacity to work.
From 1 July this year, the government made those work-focused activities for DSP recipients under the age of 35 compulsory. Some recipients under 35 who were granted the DSP between 2008-2011, will have their eligibility re-assessed.
Taleporos told Insight when he started receiving the DSP at age 16, there was an assumption that he'll never work.
Dr George Taleporos speaking with Jenny Brockie. (Insight SBS)
He completed his education and went on to university where he received a PhD in psychology and has now been working at the organisation for nearly 8 years.
He doesn’t think there are too many people on the DSP considering the difficulty that people have in gaining employment, but welcomes the reforms because he thinks people shouldn't be receiving the pension for life and should see it as more of a safety net.
However, he believes there is need to reduce the number of DSP recipients because he feels the pension can some sometimes act as a disincentive for people.
“The reality is a lot of people with disabilities, they might get a job that allows them to do a certain amount of hours, it suits the disability and then it ends," he said.
"If you know that you're then going to be able to get back onto the DSP, you might just think look, is it worth it?"
"Maybe I should just, you know, not give it a go and I think that's not fair. I think that most people with disabilities really want to work but they are afraid of the consequences.”
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He knows job market is very competitive but believes employers have a role to play in helping ensure the workplace can support disabled people.
Often companies recruiting for people don’t understand or aren’t aware of the funding process that comes to hiring people with a disability.
“I think it's definitely on the supply. We have problems at the Public Service [who] only employs 3 percent of people with disabilities and the private sector also could do better. And obviously if you are in a situation where you're in the frame of being pushed off the pension, you might not feel like you can give it a go.”
Having said that, Taleporos believes the number one barrier that people with disabilities face is the attitudes of potential employers.
“Another problem that we have, people without disabilities expect that everyone works the way they do. We need an awareness program in the community that says that people do things differently. We all do things differently and we need to allow people to learn that.”
“For example, you know, I can't type but I'm able to use a voice-activated program that means I can type extremely well with that software. But when people look at me they might think oh, there's not much he can do. But those attitudes are damaging and they need to change.”
He believes people should not feel like they are destined to be disabled forever and say there are other options like part-time work or self-employment to enable them to contribute to society.
“If there were fewer barriers, were more positive towards people with disabilities, certainly. But we live in a country where very few people are able to find jobs if they have a disability and that's a very unfortunate situation,” he said.
is a guest on . Host Jenny Brockie asks people with disability about their experiences with the system and how the proposed Disability Support Pension (DSP) changes might affect them. She also hears from employers about the challenges of employing people with disabilities.
