DPA Support Funds Report
Phoebe Eden-Mann, National Policy Analyst
Last week DPA released their report on disabled people’s experiences accessing MSD Support Funds. In short, the report was scathing, and their findings clearly show the difficulties that disabled people face in accessing the most basic of Support Funds.
Support Funds are funded by MSD, and have previously been administered by Workbridge (it has been recently announced that MSD will be administering them going forward). Support Funds can provide assistance for employment support for disabled people, but there is a list of criteria you must meet to qualify. For the people who are able to access Support Funds, many spoke about how their ability to remain in the workforce was largely due to accessing these funds. However, many disabled people have also run into problems trying to access Support Funds.
The report found that Support Funds can be (amongst other things) hard to access, hard to maintain, inequitable, and that disabled people have been discouraged from applying. These barriers to funding can and do have significant impacts on employment opportunities and outcomes.
Over the past decade, applications for Support Funds have dropped significantly, with spending on Training Support down by -83%, and spending on Job Support down by -38%. It’s important to note that the maximum funding amount of $16,900 has remained the same since its introduction in 1994, despite a significant rise in inflation, wages, and cost of living.
There are some very concerning issues that have been raised in this report – we share those concerns, and support the recommendations made by DPA.
Some of the recommendations to MSD are:
Increase the maximum Job Support Funding in line with inflation, living wage, and cost of living.
Review the Support Funds eligibility criteria and application process in collaboration with disabled people.
Raise awareness about function and availability of Support Funds with disabled people and employers.
Clarify the term ‘reasonable accommodations’ to provide clearer expectations for employers.
Support Funds are an important resource for many disabled people, but as it stands, they are largely insufficient, inaccessible, and unknown to many. If the Ministry implemented the recommendations made in the report, it would be a big step in the right direction for disabled people and participation in the labour market.