Mr. John McKeon:

Absolutely. The Department has introduced the partial capacity benefit scheme and provided for very generous income disregards for people on disability payments to enable them to work while retaining their payments. We will follow up on the issue of access to schemes with the disability council. I emphasise that the range of supports available to people with disabilities is more generous than the range of supports available to jobseekers. Mr. Corcoran might want to comment on that.

Senator Moloney also asked about the 6,500 places that are available under the MOMENTUM programme. Ms Vaughan has mentioned that the second phase of the programme is just starting. I would be pretty confident that the 6,500 places will be filled. The Senator also referred to the target of moving 75,000 people out of long-term unemployment. The current number is approximately 56,000. I would be very confident that we will achieve the 75,000 target by the end of next year.