The number of people locked out of disability support and forced on to inadequate JobSeeker Payments has more than tripled since 2007 as a direct result of ever-tightening eligibility rules, a new report has found.

The Dead Ends report, by the Brotherhood of St. Laurence (BSL), Associate Professor Karen Soldatic, Western Sydney University; and Australian Federation of Disability Organisations, found an increasing number of people living with disability, psycho-social impairments and/or chronic illnesses are being assessed as having a “partial capacity to work” (impairment prevents them from working at least 30 hours per week) – making them ineligible for the Disability Support Pension (DSP) and receiving the below poverty-line JobSeeker Payment.

In March 2021, an estimated 376,287 JobSeeker recipients were deemed to have a partial capacity to work, accounting for around a third of all those on JobSeeker Payments – in 2007 this group accounted for just 10%. Those living with a psychological or psychiatric disability or a musculoskeletal or connective tissue condition together accounted for almost 80% of this group, with more than 60% aged over 45.

“Those deemed to have partial capacity to work are some of the most vulnerable in our community. They’ve been left to languish on the below poverty line JobSeeker payment with little hope of finding a job,” said co-author, Dina Bowman, Principal Research Fellow at BSL.

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