Threat to disabled

Press, 16 April 1980, Page 17

Threat to disabled

Disabled people face a dismal future because too many are barred from retraining, according to the vice-presi-dent Of the Canterbury Arthritis Society (Mr E. Dickerson) in Christchurch. Mr Dickerson said that Treasury projections were that even under the most favourable conditions about 200,000 people would be unemployed in New Zealand by 1985 because of the introduction of micro-technology.

‘'Many of these will be disabled people and will feel their life is pointless without some form of worthwhile employment or retraining for employment,” he said. The Labour Department and the Department of Social Welfare must be urged to change their attitudes to retraining the disabled. ‘‘Opportunities for disabled people to attend retraining courses at technical insti-

tutes and community’' colleges must be available for people in receipt of disability, sickness or unemployment benefits. “As the law stands now, a person receiving any of these benefits is not allowed as an individual to attend any course during the day, even though this could be of great benefit to obtain some form of gainful employment,” Mr Dickerson said. The disabled should be encouraged to work, if only part-time, with perhaps, a supplementary benefit to give them a living wage. “This would bring ample reward both to the individual and the community,” Mr Dickerson said. Unless firm action were taken soon many thousands of the disabled would be in an impossible financial position.