The Senate Community Affairs Committee Inquiry into the Disability Support Pension (DSP) has found serious flaws in its underlying policy framework, the way it is administered and how applicants are able to access it. The committee has listed 30 recommendations for reform of the DSP.
The DSP is a support payment for people with a permanent physical, intellectual or psychiatric impairment that prevents them from fully engaging in employment.
Major policy changes to the DSP since 2011 have tightened the eligibility criteria for the payment, reducing the number and rate of successful applications.
The committee found medical and non-medical requirements make the DSP inaccessible for many applicants. The evidence required to make a claim for the DSP can be difficult to obtain and cost-prohibitive, and the process for applying is long, complex, and not well understood by applicants or treating health professionals.
The committee heard that the challenges for people with disability navigating this system are varied, and can be exacerbated by their condition, and personal and financial circumstances. For those on the DSP, the rate of payment is affected by factors, including age, accessible income and assets and marital status.
A series of reforms by successive governments has changed key aspects of the DSP, including strengthening the claim assessment process, the assessment of medical conditions and implementing revised impairment tables for the assessment of DSP eligibility. The Department of Social Services is undertaking a review of the DSP impairment tables, which was due to sunset on April 1, 2022, but Covid delayed the start of the review, and the government deferred the sunsetting date to April 1, 2023.
Work is currently underway on communication products to help customers better understand the DSP eligibility rules and why a claim may have been rejected.
DSP content on Services Australia’s (the Agency) website is also being improved, which includes the introduction of a DSP pre-claim guide that provides an early indication of a customer’s likely eligibility for DSP. The Agency’s website also has medical evidence checklists available for customers and treating health professionals to assist with claiming the DSP. The DSP online claim helps customers identify and select the medical evidence they need provide with their claim and helps them to upload the evidence.
The DSP was introduced in 1991 to replace the Invalid Pension, with the aim of improving rehabilitation and labour market engagement of recipients and is the third largest social security payment, after the Age Pension and Family Tax Benefit. In 2020-21 Australian Government expenditure on the payment was $18.37 billion.
Go to: Report on the Purpose, Intent, and Adequacy of the Disability Support Pension