A key rule that bars people with temporary or fluctuating conditions from getting the disability support pension should be reviewed, a Senate inquiry has found.
The Labor-Greens-dominated committee’s report, published on Friday, said the evidence pointed to “serious flaws with the [disability support pension], its underlying policy framework, the way that it is administered, and how applicants are able to access it”.
Eligibility for the disability support pension, currently set at $967.50 a fortnight for a single person, was significantly tightened by the Gillard and Abbott governments, meaning thousands of people now find themselves on the lower jobseeker payment.
Guardian Australia has reported extensively on how the rules – particularly a requirement that a condition is “fully diagnosed, treated and stabilised” – mean many people are left to survive on the $45-a-day dole, despite Centrelink and job agencies acknowledging they are too sick to work.
Among those affected is 65-year-old cervical cancer patient Lynette Penfold, who was denied the pension and forced to live on jobseeker until she was diagnosed as terminal, and George Upjohn, a 29-year-old former pilot who has been left on the dole despite battling brain cancer.
In another case revealed by Guardian Australia, Doug Reidy, who developed severe PTSD after the black summer bushfires, had his claim rejected because he could not access mental health services in his regional community, which he needed to be considered “fully treated”.
The Senate inquiry report also said the process to apply for the pension was “long, complex and not well understood” – a common complaint among benefit recipients – with the evidence required to make a claim “difficult to obtain and cost-prohibitive”.
“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,” the report found.
It recommended the government review the rule that “a condition be ‘fully diagnosed, treated and stabilised’” and how it is “preventing people with conditions that are complex, fluctuating, or deteriorate over time” getting the pension.
Under the rules, applicants must score 20 “points” for a particular condition on the “impairment tables”, meaning those with several conditions that might add up to 20 points generally have their claims rejected.
The report recommended the government consider reforming the rules to allow people to accumulate 20 points across several impairments.
It also called for the department of social services to review the program of support requirement, which has forced thousands of pension applicants to first undertake up to 18 months of job search and training before they can get on to the payment.
The inquiry chair, Greens senator Janet Rice, said the report set a “clear blueprint for action by whoever forms government after the election”.
“Many of those who’ve been unfairly denied access to the DSP have been forced to wait years. They must not wait any longer,” Rice said.
Aside from a commitment to scrap the cashless debit card, federal Labor has been tightlipped about welfare policy ahead of the upcoming election. It is yet to indicate whether it will make changes to the disability support pension or raise the jobseeker rate.
Government senators said in additional comments to the report that while they supported consideration of practical improvements to the disability support pension, ensuring the long-term financial sustainability of the social security system was a key focus.
Kristin O’Connell from the Antipoverty Centre, who co-authored a joint submission to the inquiry with People with Disability Australia, called out the failure of the report to explicitly call for an increase to the “appallingly low DSP rate”.
There are currently about 752,000 people in receipt of the disability support pension. Of the 96,000 people who applied in 2020-21, 59.4% were rejected.
