Disabled Support Pension

A cash giveaway to millions of pensioners last year has triggered an outbreak of crook backs. The nation has for years watched on as a growing army of pensioned-off disabled workers, many of them dispirited middle-aged blokes, has emerged. 

The total number of disabled pensioners in Australia has topped 700,000.

But it can now be revealed the Rudd Government’s generosity on September 20, 2009 in giving Australians on the Age Pension and Disability Support Pensions a one-off pay rise of to $65 a fortnight had the unintended result of adding tens of thousands of new recruits to the army disabled workers.

Centrelink documents obtained under Freedom of Information laws reveal how in the six months after the pay rise a further 43,117 new Disabled Support Pensioners joined the ranks. In October alone, in the weeks after the pension pay boost, 8,615 applicants were approved.

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  • Bob smith says:

    08:21pm | 16/02/11

    I agree only a smaller proportion are so called faking it while the rules for qualification is a lot stricter as well. Read more »

  • cm76 says:

    06:06pm | 27/06/10

    Does anyone think that maybe the piddley amount of money that most receive on benefits are possibly why others may want to rort the system? Whether it right or wrong it’s probably a fact, which is what I reckon this article begins with discussing.  Do I agree with rorting absolutely… Read more »

 

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