Disability Support Pension - single

What Is This Payment?

The Disability Support Pension single rate is tagged in the rule database as a monetary primary federal benefit in the Disability Support Pension cluster. The entitlement scope is per person and ongoing, with a built-in two-year review cadence on the Disability Medical Assessment. That review schedule is part of the rule note rather than a separate timeline rule, so the review obligation travels with the entitlement throughout the working-age window.

The administering body is Services Australia. The standard intake routes are an online claim through myGov plus a service centre interview, both listed in the application metadata. Because DSP requires a clinical work capacity decision rather than a self-declared circumstance, the claim path almost always touches a medical assessor as well as a Centrelink delegate, and the application notes warn that processing typically runs longer than 13 weeks.

The rule sits inside a small cluster with two siblings: the partnered DSP rule and the illness-separated branch. The single rule applies when relationship status is single and is the default working-age pension once the medical and asset gates pass. Its end-of-life event is reaching Age Pension age, at which point this rule becomes ineligible by design and the person transitions to the Age Pension single rule. That transition is captured by the explicit meets_age_pension_age = false condition rather than a date window.

How Much Can You Get?

The amount block is defined as a formula paid fortnightly. Base is $1,200.90 per fortnight. The rule note records the breakdown as basic $1,100.30 plus pension supplement $86.50 plus energy supplement $14.10, sourced from the March 2026 Services Australia rate page. Because the figures match the Age Pension single rate by design, every indexation cycle moves DSP single and Age Pension single together.

Before any income reduction, the base translates to about $31,223.40 per year across 26 fortnights. The output display period is yearly, but the assessment runs on fortnightly numbers because that is the unit the income test uses.

Income reduction mode is cumulative with one step. When income_fortnightly is above $212, the payment reduces by $0.50 for every extra dollar. The note flags that the Work Bonus of $300 per fortnight applies on top of the free area for employment income, so a person earning small amounts of paid work can keep more of the pension than the bare threshold suggests. The Work Bonus mechanic is administered by Services Australia outside this rule but should be checked before reading a low employment income as immediate taper territory.

The amount floor cap is minimum $0. There is no negative payout path. If reduction equals or exceeds the base, the estimated DSP for that assessment point is zero. With a 50 percent taper from $212, the cut-out point lands around $2,613.80 per fortnight of assessable income before Work Bonus adjustments.

To audit any estimate, follow this five-step recipe: first confirm the base of $1,200.90; second compute assessable excess as fortnightly income minus $212 with Work Bonus applied separately; third multiply the excess by 0.5; fourth subtract that reduction from the base; fifth apply the minimum cap at zero. The order corresponds directly to the YAML structure of amount.base, income_reductions.steps[0].start_threshold, income_reductions.steps[0].rate, and caps.min.

The rule stores empty multiplier, empty reduces_if, and empty date_windows. That means no extra multiplicative factors, no conditional penalties, and no date-sliced formula branches sit on top of the base, threshold and rate. For this rule version the only decision variables that move the dollar number are the base, the single income threshold, the single reduction rate, and the lower bound at zero.

Eligibility Conditions

The eligibility block is an all set, so every item must pass; the nested any branch on assets is satisfied if either the homeowner side or the non-homeowner side holds.

1. Working-age floor: age >= 16. The rule covers everyone from school-leaving age up to Age Pension age.
2. Working-age ceiling: meets_age_pension_age = false. Once the person reaches Age Pension age the system routes them to the Age Pension single rule instead of this one.
3. Residency status: in australian_citizen, permanent_resident, or special_category_visa. Note that other eligible visas accepted by some federal payments are not listed here.
4. Presence: living_in_australia = true.
5. Relationship status: partner_status = single. Partnered cases route to the couple rule; illness-separated cases route to the illness-separated branch.
6. Medical gate: disability_or_illness_confirmed = true. The note states the disability must be permanent and prevent the person from working 15 or more hours per week for the next two years.
7. Work capacity assessment: work_capacity_assessment_met = true. Confirmed by a Disability Medical Assessment or Job Capacity Assessment with a Centrelink-appointed assessor.
8. Asset gate: homeowner with assets_total < 722000, or non-homeowner with assets_total < 980000. Both branches read as a strict less-than comparison; meeting the cut-off exactly does not pass.

Required fields for evaluation are explicit and short: age, residency status, partner status, disability or illness confirmation, work capacity assessment outcome, fortnightly income, total assets, homeowner status and living-in-Australia status. Together they cover the medical gate, the income test, and the asset test in one intake step.

The exclude block lists three payments that block DSP at the door: Age Pension, JobSeeker Payment, and Parenting Payment Single. The reasoning is that each of those is also primary income support and the system does not pay two primary streams to the same person. If a person currently receives one of those, they can either swap to DSP through a transfer claim or stay on the existing payment.

One non-obvious interaction sits inside the medical gate. The rule does not require a specific impairment table score in YAML, but Services Australia operationally applies the impairment tables and the 15-hours work capacity test as part of the Disability Medical Assessment. The YAML field work_capacity_assessment_met is therefore the wrapper for both the medical impairment evaluation and the work capacity decision.

How To Apply

Application metadata defines two channels: online and service centre. The online path is lodged through myGov linked to Centrelink. The service centre path is the same claim form, lodged in person, and is often used when the medical record needs to be uploaded with assistance.

Evidence requirements are explicitly listed in the rule and should be prepared before claim submission:

• identity document
• tax file number
• medical reports
• specialist assessments
• asset details

Two practical considerations come straight from the application notes. First, the typical processing window is more than 13 weeks because medical evidence must be reviewed by an assessor in addition to the Centrelink delegate. Second, applicants who need income support during the wait can lodge JobSeeker Payment in parallel and flag that a DSP claim is in progress; once DSP is granted the payment type swaps and the JobSeeker claim is closed.

Lodge a DSP claim through Services Australia

Rule-Based Scenarios

Scenario 1: full rate, low passive income

Patricia is 52, single, an Australian citizen, and has a confirmed permanent musculoskeletal condition with a passing work capacity assessment. She owns a modest unit and her total assets sit at $260,000. Passive income from a small term deposit averages $90 per fortnight. Because $90 is well below the $212 free area, no taper applies. Her estimated DSP is the full $1,200.90 per fortnight, or about $31,223.40 per year. The Pensioner Concession Card is auto-issued through the affects list.

Scenario 2: partial taper, casual employment

Vincent is 39, single, non-homeowner, with $410,000 in total assets and a confirmed disability. He picks up casual hours and reports $760 per fortnight from employment. Setting Work Bonus aside for clarity, the assessable excess above $212 is $548. Reduction at 50 cents per dollar is $274. Estimated DSP is $1,200.90 minus $274, equal to $926.90 per fortnight, around $24,099.40 per year. With the Work Bonus credit applied by Services Australia, his actual rate may be higher in any given fortnight.

Scenario 3: blocked by exclude list

Eleanor is 47, single, with a confirmed condition and assets of $180,000. She is currently receiving JobSeeker Payment with a partial capacity to work. Although her circumstances would otherwise meet DSP, the exclude block returns ineligible while JobSeeker is the active payment. She must lodge a transfer claim to DSP and let Services Australia close the JobSeeker stream once the new entitlement is granted.

Scenario 4: asset cut-off failure

Stuart is 60, single, a homeowner with $735,000 in non-home assets. The medical and work capacity gates both pass. Because $735,000 is above the homeowner cut-off of $722,000, the asset branch fails and DSP is not payable for him. If he reduces assessable assets below $722,000 the rule becomes payable; meanwhile he can review whether non-pension assistance, such as the low-income concession path, fits his circumstances.

Common Mistakes

• Confusing DSP with Carer Payment as income support: people sometimes assume the carer of a disabled person can claim DSP themselves. DSP requires the applicant's own confirmed disability and work capacity decision. Carer Payment is the partner rule for the carer with a different code path entirely.
• Misreading the 15-hour work capacity rule: the eligibility note states the disability must prevent working 15 or more hours per week. Some applicants assume any reduced hours qualify; the medical assessor applies the threshold strictly using the impairment tables and Job Capacity Assessment.
• Workers compensation preclusion period: applicants who received a workers comp lump sum face a Centrelink-calculated preclusion period before DSP commences. The YAML rule does not encode the preclusion period explicitly, but it sits in the surrounding policy and can delay payment by months even after grant.
• Asset cut-off off-by-one: the rule uses a strict less-than test, so $722,000 exactly fails for homeowners and $980,000 exactly fails for non-homeowners. Reducing assets to $721,999 is the operational floor for a homeowner.
• Forgetting the two-year medical review: the entitlement scope note schedules a Disability Medical Assessment review every two years. Missing the review can suspend payment even when the underlying medical situation has not changed.
• Pension-type concession card path mismatch: DSP auto-issues the Pensioner Concession Card. Some applicants try to apply for the Health Care Card separately; the affects list shows DSP routes to the PCC, not the HCC, because the rule is pension-type rather than allowance-type.

Related Benefits

The conflicts list and affects list in this rule define interaction behaviour with neighbouring federal payments. Use these links to navigate the surrounding rules in the typical disability income support journey.

• Disability Support Pension - couple (each) - partnered branch of the same cluster, used when relationship status changes from single to partnered.
• Disability Support Pension - couple, separated due to illness (single rate) - branch for legally married partners physically separated by illness, respite or prison; pays at the higher single rate.
• Age Pension - single - destination payment when DSP recipient reaches Age Pension age; this rule's meets_age_pension_age = false gate enforces the handover.
• JobSeeker Payment - single, 22+, no dependent child - listed in the exclude block; commonly used as a temporary income stream while waiting for DSP grant.
• Pensioner Concession Card - auto-issued through the affects list once DSP is granted.
• Mobility Allowance - standard rate - companion payment for DSP recipients who need transport assistance for work, study or volunteering.

Frequently Asked Questions