Amanda Rishworth (Kingston, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Social Services) Share this | Hansard source

I am very pleased to speak to and sum up on the Social Security Legislation Amendment (Technical Changes) Bill 2025, which will amend the Social Security Act 1991 to maintain current arrangements for the youth disability support payment rates. This includes different rates for recipients aged under 21, depending on their circumstances, including family situation. This reflects the long-established policy position that higher rates of payment should be targeted to those with greater need, such as those that are living independently or away from home.

These technical amendments are necessary as a recent merits review decision highlighted an unintended consequence of the Employment and Workplace Relations Legislation Amendment (Welfare to Work and Other Measures) Act 2005. Those changes introduced the partial-capacity-to-work rule to the independence criteria, which was intended to apply to youth allowance recipients only. It's now understood that a drafting error in the 2005 amendments means that certain DSP recipients under 21 are impacted. This in turn affected the rates of support those recipients were entitled to receive. Without this bill, it would mean that arrangements would be at odds with the objective of Australia's Disability Strategy, providing a perverse incentive for young people to drop out of study, and apprenticeships. This bill is important to maintain the current arrangements for youth DSP payment rates and will validate past rate decisions, consistent with the longstanding policy intent of these arrangements. I commend the bill to the House.

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