Sources of public funding for disability support services

Funding for disability-related support services comes from a large number of points across government. The review of long-term disability supports completed by the Office for Disability Issues in 2007 identified that 11 Votes, together with funding from the Accident Compensation Corporation account, the Land Transport Fund and the Lottery Grant Scheme, were involved. Table 1 shows disability support service funding from each of the main sources.

Table 1 - Public expenditure on disability supports for people with long-term impairments only, by agency, 2005/2006¹⁶

The cost of residential care services (such as group homes or rest homes) is the single largest disability support service expenditure category (and which excludes the cost of income support payments), accounting for some 35 per cent of expenditure (see Table 2). The cost of non-residential care (personal care services and home help) is just over half that cost, at 19 per cent. Training and therapy costs and the reimbursement of support costs are also significant. Non-residential care costs affect the largest number of disabled people (over 220,000, as opposed to some 43,000 in residential care).

Table 2 - Expenditure on disability support services, by service category, 2005/2006¹⁷

Growth in the number of disabled people receiving income support

Table 2 does not show the cost of income support payments to disabled people. That cost falls under Vote: Social Development, for Invalids Benefit, Sickness Benefit and New Zealand Superannuation; and to the ACC scheme, for people disabled by accident. The cost of War Disability Pensions falls under Vote War Pensions.

In recent years, the numbers of New Zealanders receiving Invalids and Sickness Benefits have grown. As at September 2008 we had 83,618 people of working age receiving Invalids Benefit and 48,204 receiving Sickness Benefit, compared to 48,957 and 34,217 respectively at September 1998. Much of this growth is accounted for by population ageing, and because people who once would have moved off these benefits when they qualified for New Zealand Superannuation at age 60 years now remain on them until the age of 65 years.

The comparable ACC numbers are 120,583 in 2007/2008 and 104,011 in 1998/1999.¹⁸

The number of children and young people receiving Special Education Services has grown over the same period from 15,954 in 1998 to 23,783 in 2008.¹⁹

Government provision of employment services, and services to help young people move from school to work

The Ministry of Social Development funds 65 organisations throughout the country to offer a transition service to students who are in their last year at school and who receive funding through the Ministry of Education's Ongoing Reviewable Resourcing Scheme (ORRS). This gives a broad geographical spread of these services. In some instances it gives disabled students and their families a choice of transition service providers and enables students to experience different post-school options.

Through the Ministry of Social Development the government provides individualised funding of about $17,600 per person per year for vocational services for students with very high support needs as identified by the Ministry of Education, once they leave school and are aged 16 years or over. (This measure of support indicates the individual requires help with daily tasks such as showering and preparing meals.) As at 1 January 2008, 459 people were receiving services through this programme. The exit rate from the programme is low (approximately 5 per cent a year) as the majority of those accessing the funding require assistance in the long term.

The Ministry of Social Development spends about $85 million a year on funding vocational services for people with generally lower levels of support needs than those described in the paragraph above, but who still require specialist assistance. These services are operated under the Pathways to Inclusion policy.²⁰ They are spread around the country and are used by approximately 20,000 people a year, primarily by people who have intellectual disability, who experience mental illness or who have multiple and complex needs. Services provided include supporting people to find and keep jobs and to participate more broadly in their communities.
Vocational services also include Business Enterprises (formerly called 'sheltered workshops') that employ disabled people directly (but not necessarily exclusively so).