List of Recommendations

Recommendation 1

1.28

The Committee recommends that the Department of Social Services and the Department of Human Services conduct an end-to-end review of the administration of the Disability Support Pension program, involving consultation and engagement with stakeholders.

Recommendation 2

1.32

The Committee recommends that the Auditor-General consider the merits of a follow-up audit of the Department of Social Services and Department of Human Services’ administration of the Disability Support Pension. This audit could also focus on the implementation of recommendations made by previous Auditor-General and committee reports.

Recommendation 3

2.12

The Committee recommends that the Department of Social Services and Department of Human Services undertake and publicly report the outcomes from an evaluation of the reviews of recipients under 35 years of age and the 2016–17 measure for 90,000 additional reviews, and give particular emphasis to the issues raised in paragraph 2.11.

Recommendation 4

2.13

The Committee recommends that the Department of Social Services and Department of Human Services investigate the capture and sharing of data between Federal departmental systems and with State and Territory governments to improve the identification and exclusion from review of manifestly eligible and other severely disabled recipients.

Recommendation 5

3.10

The Committee recommends that the Department of Social Services and Department of Human Services undertake a transparent review, which should include independent expert input and stakeholder engagement, of the changes to the evidentiary process introduced to consider:

the impact on timeliness and efficacy of decision making in assessing new claims and recipients under review;

the consequences and trends for reviews and appeals; and

ways to improve communication.

Recommendation 6

3.16

The Committee recommends that the Department of Human Services consider the merits of increasing the time given for clients under review to provide documents, noting the current period of 21 days has proven insufficient in many cases. Further to this, that the Department of Human Services consider the additional time constraints that people in regional areas may face in producing documentary evidence in a short timeframe.

Recommendation 7

3.18

The Committee recommends that the Department of Social Services and Department of Human Services undertake a post-implementation review of the Program of Support requirements for claimants.

Recommendation 8

3.20

The Committee recommends that the Department of Social Services review the List 1 of conditions that provides eligibility for manifest grants of the Disability Support Pension. The Committee recommends particular attention is given to the merits of including chromosomal disorders, such as Down syndrome, on List 1.

Recommendation 9

4.11

The Committee recommends that the Department of Social Services, in cooperation with the Department of Human Services, report back to the Committee on its progress in implementing audit recommendations numbers 3 and 4 of Report No. 18 (2015–16) and the findings and implementation plans from current relevant reviews being undertaken by the departments and those recommended by the Committee in this report.

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