Social services minister, Scott Morrison, says welfare savings are needed to help pay for the National Disability Insurance Scheme

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

A crackdown forcing new claimants of the disability support pension (DSP) to be assessed by a government-appointed doctor will initially apply only to some applicants aged 35 or younger in capital cities.



The former social services minister Kevin Andrews announced the change in mid-December, saying it would help ensure government support went to those most in need.

If the government doctor finds an applicant is able to do some work, with the right support, they will receive unemployment benefits – about $160 a week less than the DSP.

But the government has not yet engaged enough doctors to implement the policy.

The department of human services website clarifies the change will apply to some DSP claimants – those who are not immediately assessed to be manifestly eligible – and initially only to those under 35. Over 35s will be included from July.

The department’s general manager, Hank Jongen, told Guardian Australia the new requirements would “initially … apply to people applying for DSP who are 35 years of age or under and live in a capital city”.

“Disability medical assessments are being conducted initially by doctors currently employed by the department, and suitably qualified doctors drawn from existing federal government recruitment panel arrangements. The department will shortly commence a formal procurement process to engage further medical practitioner resources,” he said.

Andrews said the government received about 2,000 DSP claims a week. In the past financial year 411 people were found to have dishonestly claimed disability benefits, worth $9.5m.

The new social services minister, Scott Morrison, has said more welfare savings are needed to help pay for the national disability support scheme.

“To relieve the burden on the system it is about getting people off welfare and into work, and to work as much as they are able. This is the goal we are working towards. I would hope it is a goal the opposition shares. They support the NDIS, but are they going to support what needs to be done to fund it?” Morrison said late last year, soon after taking up his new portfolio.

The government is also cracking down on the amount of time those on the disability pension can spend overseas before losing their payments and is reassessing people aged 35 and younger who are already receiving the disability pension.

Doctors’ groups support targeting payments to those who need them, but said accurate assessments of disability could be made only by people who knew the patient’s medical history.

Dr Stephen Parnis, the vice-president of the Australian Medical Association, said there were advantages to continuity of care. He wanted the government to ensure the commonwealth-appointed doctors communicated and collaborated with patients’ family doctors to fully understand their medical history and to “minimise adverse decision-making”.

The UK implemented a similar scheme in 2008 under which government-appointed doctors assessed a claimant’s fitness for work. Implementation of that policy was criticised by a committee of MPs as “crude” and “inaccurate”.