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

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 feasibility of a basic income alternative when compared with the blind pension, the broader political economy and dimensions of income support provision. The chapter also explores the blind pension relative to the National Disability Insurance Scheme to consider the social conditions and forces necessary for the transformation of social security through universal basic income and of the social (welfare) state towards an ethical and just society