The revised bill includes a new lower means test on family payments and the tightening of the disability support pension.

The bill passed the Senate with ALP and Greens support. Crossbench senators including Bob Day, David Leyonhjelm and Ricky Muir also supported the bill. Independent senator Nick Xenophon and Jacqui Lambie opposed, as did the Greens. The rest of the Palmer United Party abstained.

Measures passed support the Government’s decision to review disability support pension (DSP) recipients aged under 35 years against revised impairment tables.

From 1 January 2015, DSP recipients will generally be paid for up to four weeks only in a 12 month period if they are absent from Australia.

A sum of $3 million will fund the young carer bursary programme, which will provide support for young carers who look after people with disabilities, physical or mental health issues or older people in need of care.

From July 1, the family tax benefit (FTB) part B primary earner income limit will fall from $150,000 to $100,000 per year, and the FTB Part A per child add-on amount will no longer be used in calculating a family’s higher income free area.

Income from superannuation income will be included in the commonwealth seniors health card income test from January 1, with grandfathering provisions applied to existing cardholders.

Access to relocation scholarships will be restricted to students relocating to or from regional areas.

In the biggest ever crackdown on the burgeoning DSP, the government will today publish proposed new “impairment tables” used to judge who is eligible to claim the benefit, worth $729.30 a fortnight for singles.

Under the first changes to the disability eligibility rules since 1993, people with a hearing impairment would now be assessed when their hearing aid was in to decide their capacity for work.

Previously it had been a requirement to be tested without a hearing aid. By contrast, those being tested for sight impairment were required to wear glasses.

Issues such as obesity or chronic pain would no longer be considered grounds in themselves for DSP eligibility. Rather, they would be considered based on how they affect a person’s capacity to function and work.

Bad backs would no longer be assessed by how much movement and mobility has been lost, but rather on what the back condition prevents the person from doing — such as sitting for a long period of time, or bending over to pick up objects. Such an assessment may still allow for certain types of work to be undertaken.

And there would be new guidelines on mental health, the fastest-growing category of new DSP recipients. People who suffer from episodic mental health conditions would now be treated with a focus on rehabilitation.

“The new (tables) will make sure that people applying for the Disability Support Pension will be assessed on what they can do and not what they can’t do,” Community Services Minister Jenny Macklin said yesterday.

“I want to see people who have some capacity to work doing so.

“I believe we can do better than a lifetime spent on income support, for Australians who have some capacity to work.

“Of course the Disability Support Pension is, and will remain, an essential part of our social safety net for those who are unable to work.”

The new rules would take effect from January 1 next year and apply only to new applicants.

There are currently 815,000 DSP recipients, up by almost 100,000 from just two years ago, but the changes proposed by the government’s expert advisory committee — and expected to be adopted — are set to make a profound difference to the future take-up rate of the welfare payment.

A Centrelink review of the new tables found 38 per cent of the successful DSP applicants in the first half of this year would be found ineligible under the new tables.

Both Coalition and Labor governments have worked for years, with little effect, to control the ever-increasing numbers of DSP recipients by pushing the idea that those with the capacity to work should do so.

The DSP has long been a welfare dead-end for recipients, with very few moving off the payment, except on to the age pension.

In 2006, the Howard government changed the rules to stop people receiving the DSP if they could work 15 hours a week or more, down from the previous 30-hour test.

The 2009 budget saw the Gillard government put DSP decisions in the hands of more senior assessors. Since the change, introduced in July last year, successful claims fell from 63.3 per cent to 58.8 per cent.

The 2011 budget offered DSP recipients aged 35 and under a carrot, allowing them to work up to 30 hours a week without losing the part-pension. Previously, any more than 15 hours work a week was enough to suspend the payment. And, from September this year, applicants (other than those with a severe disability or illness) must show they have tried to get work or training before they can be eligible for the DSP.

The profile of a typical DSP recipient is changing from those with musculoskeletal conditions (currently 33 per cent of the total) to those with mental illnesses.

In 2001, less than 23 per cent of disability support pensioners had a psychological or psychiatric condition; now it is 29 per cent and growing.

Disability Discrimination Commissioner Graeme Innes said the time was ripe for a change in the assessment procedures.

“They were last addressed in the early 90s and since that time much of the thinking on disability has changed from a medical to a social model, looking at how a person’s disability influences their capacity to function in life,” he said. “So I’m supportive of the government’s clear intention to ensure that as many people with disabilities as possible are out there in the community, working and paying taxes rather than receiving benefits.”