Changes in Access to Australian Disability Support Benefits During a Period of Social Welfare Reform

The Disability Support Pension (DSP) is the major Australian government financial benefit program for people of working age with medical conditions and disabilities that restrict work capacity. Between 2012 and 2018 a series of policy reforms sought to restrict the growth in DSP payments and encoura...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of social policy 2022-01, Vol.51 (1), p.132-154
Main Authors: COLLIE, ALEX, SHEEHAN, LUKE R, LANE, TYLER J
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Access
Budgets
Changes
Disability
Disability pensions
Disability recipients
Employment
Expenditures
Financial support
Medical conditions
Medicine
Mental disorders
Mental health
Payments
People with disabilities
Policy making
Public finance
Reforms
Social policy
Social reform
Social welfare
Trends
Unemployment
Unemployment benefits
Welfare recipients
Welfare reform
Work
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The Disability Support Pension (DSP) is the major Australian government financial benefit program for people of working age with medical conditions and disabilities that restrict work capacity. Between 2012 and 2018 a series of policy reforms sought to restrict the growth in DSP payments and encourage more people with some work capacity to seek employment. We characterise changes in three markers of access to disability financial support over the reform period (1) DSP recipient rates (2) DSP grant (approval) rates and (3) the rate of unemployment benefit receipt in people with impaired work capacity. Results demonstrate a significant reduction in DSP receipt and grant rates, and significant increase in the rate of unemployment benefit receipt in working-age Australians with work disabling medical conditions and disability. These changes were not distributed uniformly. People whose primary medical condition was a musculoskeletal or circulatory system disorder demonstrated greater declines in DSP receipt and grant rates, while there was a more rapid increase in unemployment benefit receipt among people with primary mental health conditions. Some trend changes occur in periods during which new disability assessment and pension eligibility policies were introduced, though our ability to attribute changes to specific policy changes is limited.
ISSN:0047-2794
1469-7823
DOI:10.1017/S0047279420000732