This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

The number of sick or disabled Newstart recipients facing work requirements has hit a record high of 200,000, just as the government predicts further savings from the disability support pension.

New data from the social services department shows there were 199,907 Newstart recipients with “partial capacity to work” in December, an increase of 50% – or about 65,000 – over the past five years. The figure represents 26% of the 722,923 on the dole.

Over the same period, the number of disability pensioners fell from 832,024 to 750,045, and the rate of successful disability support pension claims also declined markedly – from 69% in 2010-11 and 40.6% in 2013-14 to 29.8% in 2017-18.

It comes after last week’s federal budget forecast a 2.3% saving on income support to people with a disability over the next four years.

Newstart recipients with a “partial capacity to work” are assessed as having a physical, intellectual or psychiatric impairment that prevents them from working 30 hours a week. The requirement was introduced by the Howard government in 2006.

Labor and the Coalition have further tightened disability support pension eligibility since then, including a major overhaul by the Gillard government that the parliamentary budget office said was responsible for the big drop in new disability pensioners. In 2015, the Coalition forced new claimants to be assessed by a government-appointed doctor.

Cassandra Goldie, the chief executive of the Australian Council of Social Service, said there were “unprecedented numbers” of people on the dole with a disability or illness.

“At just $40 a day, Newstart is not working to help people get through tough times, let alone meet the costs of disability,” she said.

The Greens senator Rachel Siewert described the latest figures as “absolutely shameful”.

“I’ve been watching this issue closely since 2012 when the Labor government changed the impairment tables and forced people to prove they can’t find work for 18 months with the purpose of reducing the number of people able to access [disability support pension],” she said.

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“When you look at the fact that the number of people on [that pension] has gone down over this period, it is obvious that they are stuck on Newstart. People whose conditions have not ‘stabilised’ or who don’t meet the stricter eligibility criteria have been condemned to the lower Newstart payment.”

A single disability pensioner gets $463.10 a week, compared with $278.85 for people on Newstart. The discrepancy means sick or disabled people on the dole must choose between paying for household essentials or medical treatment, said Leanne Ho, the executive officer at the National Social Security Rights Network.

Ho told Guardian Australia clients regularly presented with multiple and sometimes severe physical and mental illnesses but did not meet the tighter eligibility criteria.

Labor’s social services spokeswoman, Linda Burney, would not say if the opposition’s “root and branch” review of the dole would also examine eligibility requirements.

“Labor recognises that the rate of Newstart is too low,” Burney said. “It’s so low it’s acting as a barrier to people entering the workforce. People are struggling to afford transport, clothes and essentials.”

A spokeswoman for the social services minister, Paul Fletcher, said the government would spend more than $3 billion over the next four years on the specialised Disability Employment Services (DES) program.

“Since its introduction in 2010, DES has helped over 808,000 people with disability in their search for employment,” she said. “There are currently 213,000 people receiving DES assistance.

“Under the new DES arrangements that commenced from 1 July 2018, there has been an increase of around 10% in participants on the DES caseload.”

The spokeswoman said disability support pension recipients must be assessed as “being unable to work for 15 or more hours per week, for at least the next two years, because of their impairment”.

“Not all people with disability are eligible for DSP as many people with disability want, and are able, to work,” she said.

The disability support pension is one of the larger components of the social security budget, costing about $17bn a year and making up about 10% of social security spending.

Last year the Coalition scrapped a policy to review the medical condition of 90,000 people on it after fewer than 2% people were found to be ineligible.