Successive Governments have made meeting the eligibility threshold so burdensome and difficult that many people with disability, who may have been eligible in the past, can no longer access the Disability Support Pension (DSP). The Australian Federation of Disability organisations (AFDO) has commissioned three new studies by various Australian universities to highlight the economic and health impacts of disability, particularly for Indigenous Australians.
The reports include:
- Inequalities in Standards of Living: Evidence for improved income support for people with disability by NATSEM:
- The Health of Disability Support Pension and Newstart Allowance Recipients by Monash University
- At what cost? Indigenous Australians’ experiences of applying for disability income support (Disability Support Pension) by Western Sydney University
AFDO and and the report authors are calling on the government to:
- Initiate an urgent review into the adequacy of the Disabilty Support Pension.
- Implement a three-month assessment timeframe for the eligibility process.
- Ensure that the eligibility process is fair, reasonable, accessible, equitable and not unduly burdensome on people with disability and their support networks.
- Ensure the eligibility process for the DSP does not generate further financial hardship and economic insecurity.
- Remove the criteria for people to be fully treated and stabilised from the eligibility criteria to acknowledge fluctuating conditions and/or illnesses, rapid onset of disease and accidents and injury.
- Cease the Program of Support; it is acting as a barrier to people with disability successfully claiming the DSP.
- Increase the security of transition from the DSP into employment by reinstating the initial threshold of work hours from 15 – 30 hours per week to enable a person with a disability to participate in the labour market without significant loss of access to necessary supports.
- Provide DSP information in a range of accessible formats, such as; braille, Auslan, large print, plain language, easy English, etc.
Download report in a variety of formats (off-site)
- Topics:
- Centrelink
- Author:
- Jinjing Li, Laurie Brown, Hai Anh La, Riyana Miranti and Yogi Vidyattama NATSEM at The Institute for Governance and Policy Analysis, University of Canberra
- Source:
- Australian Federation of Disability Organisations (AFDO
- Date published:
- Tue 17th Sep, 2019