Disability Support Pension

How do I apply for the Disability Support Pension?

To apply for the Disability Support Pension you need to complete four forms:

1. Claim for Disability Support Pension form
   
2. Income and Assets form
3. Consent to disclose medical information form
4. DSP Medical Evidence Requirements Checklist.
   

You can get these forms by:

• calling Centrelink and asking for the forms to be sent to you
  
• visiting a local Service Centre
  
• downloading them from the Centrelink forms page on the Services Australia website.
  

To get all four forms, see Claim for Disability Support Pension form (SA466) on the Services Australia website.

In addition to the forms, you will need to give Centrelink medical evidence to support your claim, for example medical history records or specialist medical reports.

Depending on your personal circumstances, you may also need to complete other forms or documents.

For more information about medical evidence for Disability Support Pension, see Medical evidence on the Services Australia website.

Am I eligible for the Disability Support Pension?

To be eligible for the Disability Support Pension you must:

• be at least 16 years old and below pension age
  
• meet residency requirements
  
• have a permanent and diagnosed disability or medical condition
  
• meet the income and assets tests.
  

You may also need to show that you:

• have done a Program of Support, and
  
• can't work or retrain to work for at least 15 hours a week in the next two years.
  

To be eligible your medical condition needs to be diagnosed, reasonably treated and stabilised. The medical condition needs to be assessed to see how it affects your ability to work. To assess your condition Centrelink uses impairment tables.

For more information about the eligibility requirements, see Disability Support Pension on the Services Australia website.

What evidence do I need to claim the Disability Support Pension?

You need to give Centrelink medical evidence about your health problems, and how they affect you and your ability to work. Your evidence may include medical records, hospital records, specialist reports, scans or rehabilitation reports.

You may also ask your current doctor or other health professional to write a letter or report to Centrelink. Before asking for a letter or report, you should ask your doctor or other health professional if you need to pay for the report and how much it will cost.

The evidence you provide needs to be relevant to your health at the time of application and up to 13 weeks after your application. This means that you can provide new evidence about your health problem after you have submitted your claim for the Disability Support Pension.

What does reasonable treatment mean?

A treatment is considered reasonable if:

• it can be regularly undertaken
  
• it is reasonably accessible
  
• it is at a reasonable cost
  
• it has a low risk and a high rate of success
  
• a substantial improvement in capacity can be reliably expected.
  

If Centrelink has rejected your claim for the Disability Support Pension because your health problem is not fully treated, you should get legal advice about what evidence you need to prove that your health problem is fully treated.

What are the Impairment Tables?

Centrelink uses the Impairment Tables to assess what you can and can't do. The Impairment Tables contain 15 separate tables relating to different functions, for example, brain function or upper limb function.

Points are awarded based on the impact of your health problem on your functional ability to work.

You will receive five points if the impact is mild, 10 points if the impact is moderate, 20 points if the impact is severe and 30 points if the impact is extreme.

To be eligible for the Disability Support Pension, Centrelink must award you 20 points or more in one or more of the Impairments Tables.

What is a Program of Support and why do I have to participate in one?

A Program of Support is a program funded by the government, which is designed to help you prepare for, find and keep employment.

It includes job activity requirements such as attending appointments with, and programs operated by, employment service providers. Examples of employment service providers include MAX Employment or a disability employment service, such as Job Centre Australia.

Generally, if you are asking Centrelink to consider multiple health problems that will add up to the required 20 points, you need to have participated in a program for at least 18 months in the three years before you claimed the Disability Support Pension. Periods of time that you have been exempt from the job activity requirements, for example, where you have provided a medical certificate, do not count towards the 18 month period.

You can also show that you have met the program requirement if you were participating in a program at the time you claimed the Disability Support Pension, but continuing would not help improve your capacity to find, get or stay in work. You should ask your employment service provider to provide evidence of this.

If you are awarded more than 20 points in a single table under the Impairment Tables, you do not need to participate in a program.

I have an appointment to see a job capacity assessor. Who is this and do I have to go?

A job capacity assessor is a qualified health or allied health professional who is employed by Centrelink.

If you have claimed the Disability Support Pension your claim will be referred to a job capacity assessor. They will contact you to make an appointment. This might be in person, by phone or by video conference.

The assessor will consider your medical evidence and work capacity and produce a report called a Job Capacity Assessment. This report will be provided to the officer who will make a decision about your claim.

If you don't go to the appointment, Centrelink may reject your claim for the Disability Support Pension until you go.

I have an appointment to see a Government-contracted doctor. Who is this and do I have to go?

A Government-contracted doctor is a doctor who is paid by Centrelink to assess your medical evidence and help decide if you're medically eligible for the Disability Support Pension (DSP). This is called a Disability Medical Assessment. If you saw a job capacity assessor, they would have referred you to the Government-contracted doctor.

The Government-contracted doctor may contact your doctor or specialist for more information about your health problem.

If you don't attend your appointment with the Government-contracted doctor, Centrelink may reject your claim for the DSP.

You do not need a lawyer or other advocate to go to the appointment with you, but you can bring a relative, friend or support person.

For more information, see Disability Medical Assessment on the Services Australia website. 

Why is Centrelink taking so long to make a decision about my claim for the Disability Support Pension?

Centrelink must assess a very large number of claims for the Disability Support Pension and this can slow the process down for everyone who has made a claim.

It may also take longer if:

• Centrelink has asked you to provide more evidence to support your claim and they are waiting for you to respond
  
• Centrelink is trying to contact you, but you have not returned their calls
  
• there is a long wait for appointments with the job capacity assessor or Government-contracted doctor
  
• the job capacity assessor or the Government-contracted doctor is trying to get in contact with your doctor, but has not had a response.
  

Do I have to look for work while I'm waiting for Centrelink to assess my claim for the Disability Support Pension?

If you are not already on a Centrelink payment when you claim the Disability Support Pension you may be paid the JobSeeker Payment while Centrelink makes a decision about your claim. This was previously known as the Newstart Allowance.

There are a number of eligibility criteria that you must meet in order to be approved for the JobSeeker Payment, and you may still need to meet the mutual obligation requirements. You will need to consider how you’ll meet these requirements with a permanent disability or medical condition.

If you are already on a Centrelink payment when you make your claim, you may still need to meet the mutual obligation requirements.

Why did Centrelink reject my claim for the Disability Support Pension?

Centrelink should briefly explain in its letter rejecting your claim for the Disability Support Pension (DSP) the reasons for the rejection.

Common reasons Centrelink provides for rejecting claims for the DSP include:

• one or more of your health problems have not been fully diagnosed, treated and stabilised
  
• your health problem has not been diagnosed by an appropriately qualified professional, for example, if you have a mental health condition and you did not provide a report from a Psychiatrist or Clinical Psychologist
• your health condition is likely to improve in the next two years if you undertake further reasonable treatment
• you were not awarded a total of 20 points under the Impairment Tables
  
• you did not participate in a program of support for a total of 18 months in the last three years
• the evidence you provided is not relevant to your health problem at the time of your claim for the DSP or in the 13 weeks after your claim.
  

It is possible that your claim for the DSP was rejected for a reason not relating to your health problems. For example, your claim for the DSP may have been rejected because you did not meet the income and assets test or because Centrelink does not consider you to be a resident of Australia. 

If your claim has been rejected, you should get legal advice.

Centrelink has rejected my claim for the Disability Support Pension? What can I do?

You have a right to appeal the decision to reject your claim for the Disability Support Pension (DSP) to an Authorised Review Officer. 

In order to get full arrears to the date you claimed the DSP, you need to appeal within 13 weeks of when you received the decision to reject your claim. You do not have to pay a fee to appeal.

The Authorised Review Officer will look at all the evidence you have provided in support of your claim for the DSP and should give you an opportunity to provide new evidence, which is relevant at the date of your claim and 13 weeks after this. They will also look at the Job Capacity Assessment and the Disability Medical Assessment.

You will receive a written decision from the Authorised Review Officer, which provides detailed reasons for why your appeal was successful or unsuccessful.

If your appeal was successful, you will usually receive back pay to the date of your claim the difference between the rate of the JobSeeker Payment and the rate of the DSP.

Why did Centrelink ignore the evidence I gave them in support of my claim for the Disability Support Pension?

Centrelink will only look at evidence of your health problems that is relevant at the time of your application and 13 weeks after this date.

If you have provided evidence to Centrelink, which refers to your health condition as it was more than 13 weeks after your application, they will not take this evidence into account. However, this evidence may be relevant to a new claim for the Disability Support Pension (DSP).

Centrelink may also have ignored the evidence you provided in support of your claim for the DSP because your health problem had not been diagnosed by an appropriately qualified professional, for example, if you have a mental health condition and you did not provide a report from a Psychiatrist or Clinical Psychologist.

I am sick but the Authorised Review Officer says my health problems are not 'diagnosed, reasonably treated and stabilised'. What does this mean?

To be eligible for the Disability Support Pension (DSP), your health condition must be diagnosed, reasonably treated and stabilised.

Diagnosed

For your health problem to be diagnosed, an appropriately qualified doctor needs to provide an explanation of your health problem. Your own explanation for your health problem is not a diagnosis. For the purpose of claiming the DSP, some health problems require a specialist to confirm the diagnosis. 

For mental health conditions a diagnosis can be made by a general practitioner or psychiatrist (with evidence from a registered psychologist if the diagnosis has not been made by a psychiatrist). 

Treated

For your health condition to be treated, you must have received reasonable treatment or rehabilitation for your health problem. A treatment includes medical treatment or rehabilitation to help your physical or mental function.

Stabilised

For your health problem to be stabilised, you need to provide evidence that you have undertaken reasonable treatment or that further reasonable treatment is unlikely to help your physical or mental function within the next two years.

The rules around what constitutes ‘stabilised’ have changed. A condition can be regarded as treated and/or stabilised if treatment is unlikely to result in significant functional improvement, whether or not the person has actually undertaken that treatment. 

The Authorised Review Officer says that the evidence I have provided does not relate to my health problem as it was on the date of my claim for the Disability Support Pension. What does this mean?

To be eligible for the Disability Support Pension, the evidence you provide to Centrelink to support your claim must relate to your health problem at the time of your claim and 13 weeks beyond that. This is called the relevant period.

Do I need to get new reports from my doctors and specialists for my appeal to the Authorised Review Officer?

The evidence you provide needs to refer to your health problem at the date you claimed for the Disability Support Pension (DSP). It is possible that a report prepared some years before your claim for the DSP is still relevant to your health problem at the time you made your claim. However, it is best to get a recent report about your health problems.

I need a report from a specialist, but I do not have enough money to pay for it. What can I do?

If you do not have enough money to pay a specialist for the report, you can explain to the specialist that you need the report as evidence for your claim for the Disability Support Pension and that you can't afford to pay the full fee. You can ask to have the fee waived or for a reduction. The specialist may or may not agree to your request. You can also ask your GP to refer you to another specialist who may waive or reduce their fee for the report.

For some appeals in the General Division of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, you may get a grant from Legal Aid NSW to pay for the specialist's report.

Centrelink has rejected my claim for the Disability Support Pension but I'm sick and I can't work. What can I do?

If Centrelink rejects your claim for the Disability Support Pension (DSP), you will continue to receive JobSeeker Payment or you can claim for JobSeeker Payment, if you were not granted this payment at the time of your claim for the DSP.

You will also need to satisfy the activity test. This means you will need to actively look for work, attend appointments with your job service provider or disability employment provider, and participate in approved training programs. If you do not satisfy the activity test, your payment may be suspended.

If you are too sick to satisfy the activity test, you should get a medical certificate from your doctor and give it to Centrelink or your job service provider or disability employment service provider.

My claim for the Disability Support Pension was rejected and now Centrelink has rejected my medical certificate. What can I do?

If you give Centrelink or your employment service provider a medical certificate that lists the same health problems that were part of your claim for the Disability Support Pension (DSP), your medical certificate may be rejected.

If your medical certificate has been rejected you should:

• satisfy the activity test, for example, attend any appointments made for you
• ask your doctor if they believe your health problem is a temporary flare up of an existing health condition and obtain a new medical certificate if this is the case
• appeal the decision to reject your medical certificate to an Authorised Review Officer.

If your new medical certificate is accepted, you do not need to satisfy the activity test. However, this means that you are not participating in a Program of Support, which may affect any future claims you make for the DSP.

My claim for the Disability Support Pension was rejected but my health problems are getting worse. What can I do?

If your claim for the Disability Support Pension was rejected, but your health problems are getting worse, you should consider making a new claim.

In support of your new claim, you can provide new evidence about your health problem and any treatments you have received since your previous claim.

The Authorised Review Officer has rejected my appeal. What can I do?

You have a right to appeal the decision of the Authorised Review Officer to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT).

There is no fee to apply to the AAT.

To be eligible for full payment of arrears from the date of your claim for the Disability Support Pension, you need to appeal within 13 weeks of receiving the Authorised Review Officer's decision.

For more information, see Centrelink overview on the AAT website.

Before you appeal to the AAT, you should get legal advice.

I appealed to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal and lost. What can I do?

You have a right to appeal from the Social Services and Child Support Division to the General Division of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal. This is called a second review. You have 28 days from the date of the decision to appeal.

There is no fee to apply for a second review.

Before you apply for a second review, you should get legal advice. 

If you can't get an appointment for legal advice before the 28 days has passed, you should lodge the appeal in time because your appeal can be withdrawn if you decide not to proceed with it.

More than 28 days have passed since the Social Services and Support Division made its decision. Can I still appeal?

If more than 28 days have passed since the Social Services and Child Support Division made its decision, you may still be able to appeal to the General Division. You should contact the Administrative Appeals Tribunal as soon as possible.

You will need to make an application for an extension of time. You need to explain in your application why you were not able to appeal within the time limit.

Before you appeal to the General Division, you should get legal advice.

The General Division of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal has rejected my appeal. What can I do?

You have 28 days to appeal the decision of the General Division of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal to the Federal Court of Australia.

You have to pay a fee to appeal to the Federal Court of Australia. 

For more information, see Court Fees Payable on the Federal Court of Australia website.

In some circumstances, you can apply for an exemption from paying the fee.

For more information, see Exemption From Paying Court Fees on the Federal Court of Australia website.

Before you appeal to the Federal Court of Australia, you should get legal advice.