ReturnToWorkSA

Mr KNOLL (Schubert) (14:24): Minister, can you advise then how many people are going to have their payments ceased that haven't got a redemption on 28 June?

The SPEAKER: The member for Chaffey might note that is a supplementary.

The Hon. J.R. RAU (Enfield—Deputy Premier, Attorney-General, Minister for Justice Reform, Minister for Planning, Minister for Industrial Relations, Minister for Child Protection Reform, Minister for the Public Sector, Minister for Consumer and Business Services, Minister for the City of Adelaide) (14:24): I thank the member for Schubert for that question. What I can tell you is this: as at the beginning of January 2015, there were some 7,000 people on the scheme. We are talking here about historic claims, not claims under the new scheme. Of those people, a total of 5,874 have been offered and have accepted the redemptions. My advice is that as at 15 June this year an additional 397 people—that would be on top of that 5,800-odd people—have already been classified as seriously injured and therefore eligible for the income support provided under the seriously injured scheme until retirement age and ongoing medical support.

I can indicate to the member for Schubert that assessments are continuing because there are some people in respect of whom a final determination as to whether or not they sit in that category remains an ongoing matter. It is the case, however, that ultimately there will be a group of people who are not determined to have a WPI assessment of in excess of 30 per cent and who, despite having been offered redemptions since January 2015, have elected not to receive those redemptions, for whatever reason—and that is a matter for them, it is not for me to pass judgement on their decisions in that respect.

For that group of people—I cannot tell the member for Schubert their exact number without seeking further information, because it does change from day to day—for that relatively small group of people compared with the original group, I can indicate that there has been ongoing interaction between ReturnToWorkSA and those individuals, both in a face-to-face sense and also through correspondence. There has been an attempt to reach out to those people so that where they would have the opportunity of transitioning from payments under the Return to Work scheme to a Centrelink entitlement, the Return to Work scheme is actually assisting them to make the appropriate connections with the federal agency concerned and assisting them with making applications.

That has been taking place for some time now, with a view to seeing that by the time we get to 28 June those people have already had the opportunity to be processed through the commonwealth agencies. That is the ReCONNECT scheme. In addition to that, as I said, we also have a NewAccess scheme. Some of these people are suffering from, I think it is fair to say, various forms of mental illness, some of it connected with their work and some of it connected with the fact that they have been away from work for so long. We are connecting those people with beyondblue to try to give them coaching and help them overcome the crippling effects of those illnesses.

We have also engaged the ReturnToWorkSA ReSkilling pilot program, which is set up for skills maintenance and skills development. So we are also offering these people a chance to retrain, reskill so that they can find alternative employment opportunities where they are fit and able to do so, and—