Disability pensioners claim they have been discriminated against by the federal government in its response to the coronavirus pandemic, with one young Sydney man saying he is on the verge of homelessness.

A coalition of advocacy groups are demanding the government include people receiving the disability support pension on the fortnightly $550 COVID-19 supplement following the exclusion of disabled people and their carers, despite welfare recipients such as those on JobSeeker, Youth Allowance and Austudy being eligible.

Brendan Brest, 22, who lives with a mental health disability, said he worked his way up from a life on the streets to living in transitional housing, with a view to moving into private, shared accommodation.

He was also climbing the ranks with his job at an airline when the crisis struck, seeing him stood down and unable to move out.Advertisement

“I was on the verge of building myself up. I was looking at being stable. I was on the up hill and when all this turned up it just dropped,” Mr Brest said.

After earning up to $1000 a fortnight with his pension and wage combined, he is now on half that after his community housing provider deducts the rent from the government payment.

Minus his living expenses, such as food, medication, internet and phone bill, Mr Brest said he wouldn’t have enough to catch the train to work if he still had a job.

“The risk of going back to being homeless is there,” he said.

Pam Barker, CEO of youth homelessness charity YFoundations, said a lot of people on the disability pension used employment to supplement their incomes.

She said there was an increase of young people sleeping rough, which was likely to continue with other factors such as rental stress and domestic violence.

An open letter penned by Disabled People’s Organisations Australia and endorsed by more than 70 organisations said the disability pension was inadequate support during the crisis.

A spokesperson for Families and Social Services Minister Anne Ruston said the pension was a long-term payment that was already paid at the highest rate of support in the system, “significantly higher than the JobSeeker base rate – because recipients are not expected to work to support themselves.”

The spokesperson added the disability pension, which can be up to $944 a fortnight for singles, would continue to be paid at a higher rate than JobSeeker, which was $565.70 fortnightly for singles.

Disability pension recipients would also be among those to receive two separate support payments in response to the crisis, the spokesperson said.

But disabled people who access the JobSeeker payment lose their eligibility for support.

Disability pensioner Kristin O’Connell, who is campaigning for the supplement on behalf of the Australian Unemployed Workers’ Union, said the pension was well below liveable standards, while costs for household items were also going up due to supply issues.

“We’re being discriminated against, it’s not treating people equally,” she said.

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