Benefit dependency created by young disabled people's barriers to education and restrictions when seeking work, need to be urgently addressed, a new report says.
CCS Disability Action and Workbridge released Journey to Work recently, which reveals disabled children face widespread barriers in the academic and social world.
In 2006 Statistics New Zealand reported 36% of those in the 15-24 age group who were disabled during their schooling, had no qualifications, compared to 19% of others.
In the same age group only 12% of disabled people had postschool qualifications, compared with 16% of others.
When it came to their school experience, 78% of disabled children with high support needs, and 50% with medium support needs, were limited in activities.
Support and equipment was not available to the following percentages of disabled pupils requiring it: computer access, 34%, specialist teaching and therapy, 32%, help with reading and writing 25%, and teacher aides 23%.
Also in 2006, Statistics New Zealand found only 45% of disabled people were in the workforce, compared with 77% of non-disabled people of working age.
CCS chief executive Viv Maidaborn said restricting disabled peoples' access to employment did not make economic sense.
"We are creating benefit dependency for hundreds of New Zealanders.
"It is crucial that these barriers to education and employment are addressed as a matter of urgency."
She believed the Government's Special Education Review was a starting point to consider some of the solutions raised by the report.
These included developing strategies to address issues within education and employment of young disabled people and have Government agencies providing co-ordinated support for them.
Dunedin's Sara Cohen School principal Raewyn Alexander agreed, saying the biggest issue was that funding did not cross over between the education, social development and health ministries.
If the different governmental departments co-funded disabled people, they would be better equipped for the transition to post-school life, she said.
All schools in the city worked hard to support their pupils but "huge barriers" existed.
Many of her pupils would like to enter the workforce or tertiary education but, because of their physical and intellectual disabilities, would require a support person to be with them.
Because funding was not available for this, teacher aides would need to be used, which strained already tight resources.
Transition funding was available to a handful of providers to assist young disabled people into work.
However, Mrs Alexander would like schools to be given access to the funding, up to $4000 per pupil, so pupils were better matched to their placements.
Associate Education Minister Heather Roy said the Government had identified the need for better support for pupils with special education needs and would continue to make it a priority.
"This does not necessarily mean there is a need for more funding but, rather, a need to ensure that the current funding is being used in the best way," she said.
