On 13 May 2021, the Senate referred an inquiry into the purpose, intent and adequacy of the Disability Support Pension to the Senate Community Affairs References Committee for inquiry and report by 30 November 2021. On 21 October 2021, the Senate agreed to extend the reporting date to the first sitting week of February 2022. On 10 February 2022 the Senate extended the reporting date to 18 February 2022.

Further detail about the scope of the inquiry is provided in the terms of reference.

Making a submission

The closing date for submissions has been extended to 9 July 2021. If you cannot send your submission by this date, please contact the committee secretariat.

If you would like to make a submission, you may find it helpful to look at the guide for preparing a submission. It includes suggestions on what to include in a submission, a check list, and information about what happens to your submission once it has been received by the committee.

The committee welcomes submissions from people receiving disability support payments or others affected by the disability support payments system. However, the committee cannot advise on, advocate for, or take action on individual cases.

The committee can decide to receive submissions as public documents—which are published on the committee webpage. If your submission is published, the information in it, including your name, can be searched for on the internet.

The committee can also decide to receive submissions on a confidential basis or with your name and personal details withheld. If you do not want your submission to be publicly available, you can ask the committee to keep your submission confidential – please include the word confidential on the front of your submission as well as a reason for requesting confidentiality.