When your Disability Support Pension payments change

A letter has arrived, or the amount has moved.

A decision about the Disability Support Pension is a decision about one system. It is not a decision about any insurance held inside your super.

Two systems. Two different tests. Two different decision makers. One does not settle the other. Most people are never told the second is there.

This page sets out what the DSP rules measure and how they treat money arriving from an insurance policy. It explains a system, not your claim.

What does the pension measure?

Qualification runs on two limbs of equal weight, plus age and residence criteria (Social Security Act 1991 (Cth), the SSAct below, s 94(1); the Social Security Guide published by the Department of Social Services, or DSS, 3.6.1.12).

The points, and a 2 year clock. A person needs "functional impairment of at least 20 points as measured by the Impairment Tables, which will persist for more than 2 years". The Tables are a legislative instrument in force from 1 April 2023: fifteen tables covering areas of function, each rating impact at 0, 5, 10, 20 or 30 points. They are "function-based rather than condition or diagnosis-based", and a condition is assessed only where it is "diagnosed, reasonably treated and stabilised" (Guide 3.6.3.01; Services Australia).

The work test, and its own 2 years. A continuing inability to work (CITW) means being unable, because of the impairment, to do work of at least 15 hours a week in the next 2 years without ongoing help from a program of support (SSAct s 94(2)). Work is defined widely: "work that is for at least 15 hours per week, at or above the relevant minimum wage and exists (anywhere) in Australia ... regardless of whether vacancies exist" (Guide 3.6.3.01). Some people reach 20 points and still do not qualify, because they do not have a CITW (Guide 3.6.1.12).

The 18 months in 3 years clock. A program of support is not required where a person meets the manifest rules (Guide 3.6.2.20) or has 20 points or more on a single table (SSAct s 94(3B)). Otherwise at least 18 months of participation in the 3 years before the claim must be shown, or a shorter program completed. Periods of non-participation do not count, and standard medical or rehabilitation treatment is not one (Guide 1.1.A.30).

One clock that does not run. Once the pension is in payment, paid work of at least 15 and less than 30 hours a week does not automatically end it (SSAct s 96).

Is this the same test a TPD policy uses?

No. Two systems, two tests, two decision makers, and neither settles the other.

The Impairment Tables have exactly one authorised use, and the Guide says so in terms: "Unless otherwise authorised by law, the Impairment Tables are used to determine whether a person whose qualification for DSP is being considered, meets a qualifying impairment threshold stipulated in the SSAct. No other use of the Impairment Tables is currently authorised". The same topic adds that reaching 20 points "merely indicates the impairment-related DSP qualification criterion has been satisfied" (3.6.3.01).

Nothing in the DSP test uses whole person impairment (WPI). It is a points rating on a functional table. State workers compensation schemes do run on WPI: Victoria for weekly payments past 130 weeks (Workplace Injury Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 2013 (Vic), s 163(1)(b)) and New South Wales for its 260 week cutoff (Workers Compensation Act 1987 (NSW), s 39(2)).

TPD cover is different again: a definition written into a policy document, applied by a super fund trustee and an insurer to that wording. No points table, and no scheme impairment percentage: the policy definition is the test. So the test that ends one of these payments is not the test a TPD or income protection policy uses, and a decision under one does not decide the other. Holding the pension does not make a TPD claim good, and losing it does not make one bad.

How is a TPD lump sum or income protection payment treated?

DSP has been a compensation affected payment since 1 May 1987 (Guide 1.1.C.250). Three rules do most of the work.

• A lump sum disability benefit paid from a superannuation fund is not assessed as income. Guide 4.13.1.20 and 4.3.9.30, in those words. Where it goes next is another question.
• Regular or periodic disability benefits paid from a super fund are ordinary income. That covers ongoing payments under a sickness and accident, income protection (IP), TPD or total and temporary disability policy, assessed gross of any offsets (Guide 4.3.9.30).
• IP and sickness and accident payments are compensation where made in respect of lost earnings or lost capacity to earn (SSAct s 17(2)). They can be ordinary income instead, depending on when the compensable event happened, whether the person contributed to the policy, and whether an offset clause has been invoked (SSAct s 17(2A)). Which side a policy sits on depends on its wording. A lump sum assessed as ordinary income is spread over 12 months rather than counted once (SSAct s 1073).

Where the money sits matters too. Superannuation in the accumulation phase is disregarded under both the income test and the assets test while a person is under age pension age, and is deemed and counted as a financial asset from then (Guide 4.8.2.10). The same money in a bank account is treated differently. That is a rule about a class of asset, not a suggestion about yours.

Preclusion periods. Where a lump sum includes an economic loss component, the compensation part is divided by the income cut out amount applying when it was received, giving a period of whole weeks that can reach backwards and create a debt (SSAct s 1170; Guide 4.13.2.60). Preclusion attaches to compensation for lost earnings or lost capacity to earn (Guide 4.13.1.10), so a workers compensation or motor accident settlement sits somewhere very different from a disability benefit paid out of a super fund.

What do you have to tell Services Australia?

This one is your own duty rather than anything we sell. Services Australia lists what has to be reported within 14 days, including "you get a lump sum payment" and "your or your partner's income or assets change". Unreported, "we may pay you too much and you may have to pay back the money". Worth carrying alongside that: "It is never too late to report a change."

What can you do this week?

Two steps, neither committing you to anything.

Put the papers in one place. The Services Australia letters about your impairment rating and your payment. Super statements for every fund you have held. More than one job usually means more than one super account, and each can carry its own cover.

Call the fund and ask. Have the member number if you can find it. "I'm not sure" is a fine answer to anything they ask.

• Do I hold total and permanent disability cover on this account, and is it active today?
• Do I hold income protection or salary continuance on this account?
• Was cover attached on the date I stopped working?
• Can you send me the insurance guide and the policy wording that applied then?

Ask every fund, including ones you no longer pay into.

What costs nothing?

• A nominee. You can nominate someone to deal with Services Australia for you (Services Australia).
• Advocacy. Services Australia notes that help from a government funded advocate service is free.
• The Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA). If a super or insurance decision does not seem right, AFCA is free to use (afca.org.au).

ClaimGuide does not run claims or assess entitlements. We explain how these systems sit next to each other and, if you want it, introduce you to a firm on our panel. You never pay us. Panel firms do.

Check everything on this page

Social security items checked 14 August 2026. The Victorian and New South Wales scheme contrasts were checked 13 August 2026.

• Services Australia, Impairment rating for Disability Support Pension, updated 5 March 2026.
• Services Australia, Program of Support for Disability Support Pension.
• Services Australia, Change of circumstances while receiving Disability Support Pension, updated 18 June 2026.
• Services Australia, Income and assets tests for Disability Support Pension, for the current rates, free areas and cut out amounts, which are not printed here.
• DSS Social Security Guide 3.6.1.12, qualification for DSP and the 15 hour rule.
• DSS Social Security Guide 3.6.2.20, manifest grants and rejections.
• DSS Social Security Guide 3.6.3.01, applying the Impairment Tables, purpose and design.
• DSS Social Security Guide 1.1.A.30, active participation in a program of support.
• DSS Social Security Guide 1.1.C.250, compensation affected payment.
• DSS Social Security Guide 4.13.1.10, what is compensation.
• DSS Social Security Guide 4.13.1.20, assessment of compensatory type payments.
• DSS Social Security Guide 4.3.9.30, income from personal injury insurance schemes.
• DSS Social Security Guide 4.8.2.10, principles for assessing superannuation investments.
• DSS Social Security Guide 4.13.2.60, lump sum preclusion period.
• DSS Social Security Guide 3.1.2.20, liquid assets test waiting period.
• Social Security Act 1991 (Cth). Sections used: 17, 94, 96, 1073, 1170, and Part 3.14.
• Social Security (Tables for the Assessment of Work-related Impairment for Disability Support Pension) Determination 2023.
• Workplace Injury Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 2013 (Vic), section 163, cited for contrast.
• Workers Compensation Act 1987 (NSW), section 39, cited for contrast.