Thousands of prisoners to lose disability pension in Centrelink crackdown

Thousands of prisoners in Australia could lose their disability support pension payments in a new Centrelink rule change – which will be rolled out to all inmates, regardless of whether they’ve been found guilty or are still in custody awaiting trial.

Prisoners are unable to claim the payments while behind bars, but they can currently suspend them for up to two years, without them being cancelled. However, the government announced in last week’s Budget that time period will now be drastically reduced – to just 13 weeks.

The suspension period is there to ensure former inmates can resume the pension upon release, in the hopes it will lessen the risk of them running into immediate financial woes and possible reoffending.

However, the shorter timeframe will now mean more will lose out on it altogether. In fact, it will even affect people who have pleaded not guilty and are still awaiting trial, who may pass the 13 week deadline while still in custody, due to a backlog of cases in court.

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), accused people spend an average of 3.3 months on remand in Australia, and 4.2 months in New South Wales. That means a lot of them would pass the 13 week deadline and lose their pension payments, even if they’re eventually found not guilty. It’s expected to affect around 2,200 people altogether.

According to the government’s official Budget documents: “This measure will save the Government $5.2 million over five years from 2017-18 to 2021-22.”

Read more: These criminals have better living conditions than most pensioners!

The online documents state that the new rules will be rolled out from the start of next year. They claim that the changes are in line with suspension arrangements for other welfare payments, including Newstart.

Those affected can test their eligibility for an alternative income support payment (for example, Newstart). The government’s official statement concludes: “The Department of Human Services assists people in prison to claim appropriate income support prior to their release.”

Victoria’s Legal Aid economic and social rights program manager, Joel Townsend, expressed worries with the new measure to The Guardian, and said access to the DSP had been “dramatically constrained in recent years”.

“This is certainly not likely to alleviate it and might further narrow eligibility for DSP to a point where yet fewer people qualify,” he added.

Do you think the changes are a good or bad idea? Should they affect prisoners who are still in custody and awaiting trial?