Submission to the Inquiry on the Purpose, intent and adequacy of the Disability Support Pension.

In July 2021, WWDA made a short submission to the Inquiry on the Purpose, intent and adequacy of the Disability Support Pension.

As there remains a significant lack of disaggregated data, research and information on the economic situation of women and girls with disability in Australia, WWDA has drawn from the experiences of our members to inform this letter. In addition to external research evidence, this letter includes direct quotes from de-identified disabled women; who are either DSP recipients or have applied to access the DSP, but not been successful.

Broadly, while the DSPwas introduced to provide financial support to working age Australians who have a permanent physical, intellectual, or psychiatric impairment that prevents or limits their capacity to engage in employment; 15 years of reforms to the DSP, by successive Federal Governments, have resulted in a DSP that is out of reach to many people with disability who are unable to financially support themselves to their impairment/s. In this letter, we outline some of the reasons that the DSP has not been effective in supporting the financial independence and welfare of women, feminine identifying and non-binary people with disability in Australia.