Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-94fs2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T03:58:45.191Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

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

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 February 2021

ALEX COLLIE Open the ORCID record for ALEX COLLIE [Opens in a new window] ,
LUKE R SHEEHAN  and
TYLER J LANE
ALEX COLLIE*
Affiliation:
School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC3004Australia.
LUKE R SHEEHAN
Affiliation:
School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC3004Australia.
TYLER J LANE
Affiliation:
School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC3004Australia.
*
Email – [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

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.

Keywords

Disability support pensionSocial policyUnemployment benefitsWork disabilityMental health conditionsMusculoskeletal conditions
Type
Article
Information
Journal of Social Policy , Volume 51 , Issue 1 , January 2022 , pp. 132 - 154
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2018a), 3101.0 - Australian Demographic Statistics, Jun 2018. Canberra: Australian Government. Retrieved from https://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/[email protected]/Lookup/3101.0Main+Features1Jun%202018?OpenDocument Google Scholar
Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2018b), 6202.0 - Labour Force, Australia, Jul 2018. Canberra: Australian Government Retrieved from https://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/[email protected]/Lookup/6202.0Main+Features1Jun%202018?OpenDocument Google Scholar
Australian Government. (2020), Guides to Social Policy Law: Social Security Guides. Canberra: Commonwealth of Australia Retrieved from https://guides.dss.gov.au/guide-social-security-law Google Scholar
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. (2016), Australian Burden of Disease Study: Impact and causes of illness and death in Australia 2011 (Vol. BOD 4.), Canberra: AIHW.Google Scholar
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. (2017), The burden of musculoskeletal conditions in Australia: A detailed analysis of the Australian Burden of Disease Study 2011. Retrieved from Canberra.Google Scholar
Barr, B., Taylor-Robinson, D., Stuckler, D., Loopstra, R., Reeves, A. and Whitehead, M. (2016), ‘First, do no harm’: are disability assessments associated with adverse trends in mental health? A longitudinal ecological study. Journal of Epidemiol Community Health, 70(4), 339–345. doi: 10.1136/jech-2015-206209 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Baumberg-Geiger, B. (2017), Benefits conditionality for disabled people: stylised facts from a review of international evidence and practice. Journal of Poverty and Social Justice, 25(2), 107–128. doi: 10.1332/175982717X14939739331010 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beckfield, J. and Bambra, C. (2016), Shorter lives in stingier states: Social policy shortcomings help explain the US mortality disadvantage. Social Science & Medicine, 171, 30–38. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2016.10.017 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Burkhauser, R., Daly, M. C., McVicar, D. and Wilkins, R. (2014), Disability benefit growth and disability reform in the US: lessons from other OECD nations. IZA Journal of Labor Policy, 3(4), 1–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Commonwealth of Australia. (2019), Guide to Social Policy Law: Social Security Guide version 1.256. Retrieved from Canberra, Australia: http://guides.dss.gov.au/guide-social-security-law/1/1/i/10 Google Scholar
Davidson, P., Saunders, P., Bradbury, B. and Wong, M. (2018), Poverty in Australia, 2018. ACOSS/UNSW Poverty and Inequality Partnership Report No. 2. Retrieved from Sydney: https://www.acoss.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/ACOSS_Poverty-in-Australia-Report_Web-Final.pdf Google Scholar
Hartvigsen, J., Hancock, M. J., Kongsted, A., Louw, Q., Ferreira, M. L., Genevay, S., … Lancet Low Back Pain Series Working, G. (2018), What low back pain is and why we need to pay attention. Lancet, 391(10137), 2356–2367. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(18)30480-X CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Harvey, S. B., Deady, M., Wang, M. J., Mykletun, A., Butterworth, P., Christensen, H. and Mitchell, P. B. (2017), Is the prevalence of mental illness increasing in Australia? Evidence from national health surveys and administrative data, 2001-2014. Medical Journal of Australia, 206(11), 490–493. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28918719 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Herd, P. and Moynihan, D. (2019), Administrative Burden: Policymaking by Other Means. Washington, USA: Russell Sage Foundation.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hong, N. (2019), Who receives Government Benefits: the Effect of Reading and Writing Assistance on Take-Up of Disability Support Pension. Paper presented at the Australian Conference of Economists, Melbourne.Google Scholar
Jensen, N. K., Bronnum-Hansen, H., Andersen, I., Thielen, K., McAllister, A., Burstrom, B., … Diderichsen, F. (2019), Too sick to work, too healthy to qualify: a cross-country analysis of the effect of changes to disability benefits. Journal of Epidemiol Community Health. doi: 10.1136/jech-2019-212191 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kim, H. J., Fay, M. P., Feuer, E. J. and Midthune, D. N. (2000), Permutation tests for joinpoint regression with applications to cancer rates. Statistics in Medicine, 19, 335–351 (correction: 2001;2020:2655).3.0.CO;2-Z>CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mays, J. and Fisher, K. R. (2019), Disability and Poverty. In Saunders, P. (Ed.), Revisting Henderson: Poverty, Social Security and Basic Income (pp. 237–256).Google Scholar
McAllister, A. (2019), Mental illnesses are not an ‘ideal type’ of disability for disability income support: Perceptions of policymakers in Australia and Canada. Scandinavian Journal of Public Health, 1403494818816903. doi: 10.1177/1403494818816903 Google ScholarPubMed
McAllister, A. and Leeder, S. R. (2018), Distrusting doctors’ evidence: a qualitative study of disability income support policy makers. Australian Health Review, 42(4), 475–480. doi: 10.1071/AH16092 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Milner, A., Kavanagh, A., McAllister, A. and Aitken, Z. (2020), The impact of the disability support pension on mental health: evidence from 14 years of an Australian cohort. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health. doi: 10.1111/1753-6405.13011 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Moynihan, D., Herd, P. and Harvey, H. (2014), Administrative Burden: Learning, Psychological, and Compliance Costs in Citizen-State Interactions. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 25, 43–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O’Campo, P., Molnar, A., Ng, E., Renahy, E., Mitchell, C., Shankardass, K., … Muntaner, C. (2015), Social welfare matters: a realist review of when, how, and why unemployment insurance impacts poverty and health. Social Science & Medicine, 132, 88–94. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2015.03.025 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), (2019a), Public spending on incapacity (indicator). Google Scholar
Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), (2019b), Public unemployment spending (indicator).Google Scholar
Parliamentary Budget Office. (2018), Disability Support Pension: Historical and projected trends Retrieved from Canberra.Google Scholar
Roelfs, D. J., Shor, E., Davidson, K. W. and Schwartz, J. E. (2011), Losing life and livelihood: a systematic review and meta-analysis of unemployment and all-cause mortality. Social Science & Medicine, 72(6), 840–854. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2011.01.005 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Statistical, Methodology and Applications, Branch (2019), Join Point Regression Program, Version 4.7.0.0 (Version 4.7.0.0): National Cancer Institute.Google Scholar
Weich, S. and Lewis, G. (1998), Poverty, unemployment, and common mental disorders: population based cohort study. BMJ, 317(7151), 115–119. doi: 10.1136/bmj.317.7151.115 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed