Universal income and services for people with disability in Australia: Lessons from the blind pension

摘要: As an alternative to punitive targeted income support measures, universal basic income represents one way to overcome social suffering brought about by the consequences of decades of neoliberal and neoclassical policies. Australia has a long history of reliance on targeted, conditional measures for social security. A clear exception to Australia’s conditionality is the blind pension. Unlike the disability pension, the blind pension is available to any person who meets the medical criteria and classification of blindness, irrespective of income and labour-market participation. A critical historical policy analysis of the conditions in which the blind pension has been retained could inform conditions that might generate political consent to trial a limited application of universal basic income for other people with disability. The chapter applies the De Wispeleare and Stirton analytical framework for critically analysing the …