UN to assess NZ’s family care policy
Disability committee set to examine law stopping family helpers from being paid
Asocial issues law preventing some families from being paid while caring for their disabled loved ones is to be scrutinised by the United Nations, as part of its periodic review of New Zealand.
The United Nations yesterday released its list of Issues relating to the Convention of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which the Government is required to report back on.
The United Nations’ disability committee will then assess New Zealand’s progress on implementing the convention, and highlight areas of concern.
It is the second time New Zealand has been subject to the process, after it ratified the convention in 2008.
The list asks generally about issues such as discrimination, accessibility, access to justice, health and education.
However, it also asks more specifically about some areas of policy, including, for the second time, about New Zealand’s Funded Family Care Policy and amendment Part 4A of the New Zealand Public Health and Disability Act 2000.
Families caring for disabled whanau this month made a plea to the Government to review that policy and overturn the law which underpins it, saying it is discriminatory and unfair.
Many, like Angela Hart of Christchurch, who cares for her daughter Gilly who has muscular dystrophy, said it took months of battling bureaucracy to get payments approved.
Legislation enabling the policy, which excludes spouses and parents with younger children from payment, and limits family carers to the minimum wage, was rushed through under urgency by former Health Minister Tony Ryall in 2013.
Outrage ensued not only at the policy, but at the part of the legislation that barred legal challenges by saying families could not take discrimination claims against it to court.
In its pre-election manifesto, Labour said it would repeal the legislation and that it would ensure all family caregivers could “provide and be paid for assessed care for their disabled adult family member”.
New Health Minister David Clark has said he has asked for advice on the issue. The Ministry of Health said Funded Family Care was under review, with the rest of the disability support system, which it wanted to make easier to access.
Other policies to be scrutinised during the UN process include whether ACC complies with the convention; the use of seclusion in schools; and abuse in state care.