One quarter of people on Newstart have partial capacity to work, since successive governments have tightened access to the pension

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

The government has dramatically cut access to the disability support pension in the past eight years, cutting the approval rate from 63% to about 30% this financial year.



Successive governments – both Labor and Liberal – have implemented policies to tighten access to the payment, which supports those with a physical or intellectual impairment that hampers their ability to work.

Data provided by the Department of Human Services shows 24,809 of about 84,000 claims have been granted so far in the current financial year. That is a grant rate of 29.53%.

The rate dipped to its lowest recent level in 2015-16, when just 26,842 of the 106,000 applications were approved – roughly one in four.

It is a huge reduction from 2010, when about 63% of pension applications were approved.

The Australian Council of Social Services (Acoss) says the policies are driving people with a limited capacity to work either into poverty or on to the poverty-level Newstart. Single recipients of the DSP get about $$826 per fortnight. The single rate for Newstart is about $545.80.

The Acoss executive, Cassandra Goldie, said one in four people on Newstart now had only a partial capacity to work.



“These policies increase rates of poverty in Australia,” Goldie said. “Being forced to live on Newstart is obviously devastating for people who are living with a disability, often acquired in the workplace, and who are struggling to find a job.

“We must urgently increase the rate of unemployment payment by at least $75 per week so that it does not leave people destitute.

“We must ensure people who need the DSP receive it. And we must do better in employing people with a disability.”



The payment is one of the larger components of the social security budget. It accounted for about 10.6% of social security spending in 2016-17. The policies were aimed at curtailing the expenditure by restricting the number of new recipients coming onto the scheme.

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A report by the parliamentary budget office in February found new compliance and assessment measures introduced by the Gillard government in 2012 caused a “sharp decline” in eligibility.

In 2015, the Coalition introduced its own crackdown on the DSP. It forced new claimants to be assessed by a government-appointed doctor.



The national social security rights network found earlier this year that the policy was making life far more difficult for claimants.

The parliamentary budget office predicted that, if current trends continue, the government would save $4.8bn over the next decade, the report found.



The minister for social services, Dan Tehan, did not respond to requests for comment.