That’s a wrap: Budget 2023
Phoebe Eden-Mann, National Policy Analyst
Well, that’s another Budget Day done and dusted. Now that the dust has (mostly) settled, we know that for the disability sector the Budget was, as predicted, disappointing.
What we needed the most was a meaningful increase to the disability allowances, one that increased the amount that people are entitled to. This has been something we’ve been campaigning for for years, and yet again, we saw no real changes to either of the disability allowances. In fact, despite our ageing population (and increasing disability rates as a result), disability allowance funding has decreased by $1.9M and is estimated to decrease further over the next four years.
Disabled children and ‘children impacted by disability’ (the Government’s word choice, not mine), are also the group that in the Budget Child Poverty Report 2023, have had the smallest overall reduction in poverty measures.
We know from international data that raising the child disability allowance does make a meaningful difference in the lives of disabled children and their whānau. The fact that it has once again been ignored is very disappointing.
Whaikaha - Ministry of Disabled People will be responsible for some funding that was previously under Health, in particular National Disability Support Services will fall under their umbrella. We believe that disability support funding has been included as part of the $2.2B total funding for Whaikaha, but we are not exactly sure how much funding there is or if it has been renamed. We have reached out for clarification on this and will update the analysis once we know more.
Regarding Education, there are no meaningful changes to report which is disappointing given these have been promised.
While there were some ‘increases’ in Special Needs Intervention (again, Government’s wording not mine), it is unlikely that funding levels will be enough to meet existing demands or deliver on the transformational changes that were promised. Some previous initiatives/funds look to have been blended into higher level education budget allocations. I believe this is due to the establishment of Whaikaha and some uncertainty around which Ministry will be responsible for certain initiatives. There will be further announcements regarding education in the future, and I suspect they will provide some clarity on this.
There were some wins for the disability sector though! Total Mobility is now effectively permanently 75% off the cost of normal fares for TM taxies, and 50% for public transport.
There is also a new initiative that was announced aimed at protecting at risk and disabled people from violence and abuse, with an estimated spend of $6.1M over the next four years.
The biggest overall win however is the announcement that the Minimum Wage Exemption Scheme is being abolished and replaced by a wage supplement to support businesses to employ disabled people. The Minimum Wage Exemption Scheme is discriminatory and exploitative at best, and we are incredibly pleased to see it is being replaced. It is budgeted to cost $27.3M in total operating costs, and $10M in total capital costs, and will be in effect by mid-2025.
So, overall, a bland budget disability wise. There are certainly some wins for young families with increases to ECE, as well as things such as scrapping $5 prescription fees, but from a disability perspective, there is a lot more that could’ve and should have been done.
What this means is that we at CCS Disability Action need to keep pushing for the transformations disabled people and their whānau need – mahi we intend to continue as we head towards a General Election.