The Disability Support Pension: where you are in the test
This is the DSP (Disability Support Pension) line. It is the only line here that is not a timetable. The marked points below are the parts of the test, in the order they usually come up. Knowing how a test is built is not a decision about your claim.
- DSP needs at least 20 impairment points and a continuing inability to work. The two limbs carry equal weight. Social Security Act s 94(1).
- Where the points come from more than one table, the claim usually needs 18 months in a program of support first. Social Security Act s 94(3B).
- Once on DSP, paid work of at least 15 and less than 30 hours a week does not automatically end the pension. Social Security Act s 96.
Social Security Act 1991 (Cth) and the DSS Social Security Guide. DSP is national, so no state is needed.
Your line is drawn heavy. The lines that can run beside it are drawn lighter, and they stay labelled and clickable. Weight shows focus, not importance, and colour never carries a meaning on its own. Every marked point is repeated as text below, with its source.
Nothing on this map marks where you are. A position on a scheme timetable is a fact about the scheme. Where you sit on it is yours, and it is not something this page decides.
How long payment continues turns on two separate things. One is qualification, and Services Australia does regular reviews to check the rules are still being met. The other is the income and assets tests, which can reduce a payment or stop it while qualification stays in place.
The marked points on this line
- The test
Points plus inability to work
DSP needs an impairment rating of at least 20 points under the Impairment Tables and a CITW (continuing inability to work), plus age and residence rules. The two limbs carry equal weight.
Source: Social Security Act s 94(1); SS Guide 3.6.1.12 · Checked August 2026 - Before claim
Program of support
Where the 20 points come from more than one table, the claim usually needs 18 months of active participation in a program of support within the 3 years before claiming.
Source: Social Security Act s 94(3B); SS Guide 1.1.A.30 · Checked August 2026 - The design
Points, not percentages
The Impairment Tables are authorised for DSP qualification and no other use. They are not a whole person impairment percentage, and they are not an insurance test.
Source: SS Guide 3.6.3.01 · Checked August 2026 - After grant
Work of 15 to 30 hours
Once on DSP, paid work of at least 15 and less than 30 hours a week does not automatically end the pension.
Source: Social Security Act s 96; SS Guide 3.6.1.12 · Checked August 2026 - Always
The 14 day rule
Changes must be reported within 14 days, including getting a lump sum. Services Australia also says it is never too late to report a change.
Source: Services Australia, change of circumstances · Checked August 2026
Lines that can run beside yours
These are separate systems with their own rules. One can run at the same time as the line above.
One line does not decide another
The test that ends one scheme is not the test a total and permanent disability (TPD) or income protection policy uses. A termination under one scheme does not decide the other. A TPD policy is assessed under its own definition, set out in the policy document, not under a scheme’s whole person impairment percentage.
None of this means you have a claim, and nothing on this page is an assessment of one. It means the end of one entitlement is not a verdict on all of them. Here is how to find out what cover you hold, free, in one phone call.
Where to go next
- Back to What happens next, where you can switch systems and states.
- When Disability Support Pension payments change
Other lines with checked data
- Workers compensation, Victoria
- Workers compensation, New South Wales
- Workers compensation, Queensland
- Workers compensation, South Australia
- Transport Accident Commission (TAC), Victoria
- Comcare (national)
Check everything on this page
Every marked point above carries its own citation. These are the instruments and regulator pages behind them, all checked August 2026.
- DSS Social Security Guide 3.6.1.12, qualification for DSP
- DSS Social Security Guide 1.1.A.30, program of support
- DSS Social Security Guide 3.6.3.01, the Impairment Tables
- Services Australia, change of circumstances on DSP
If something here has changed since it was checked, tell us and we will fix it: contact.
Enquiries open soon. When they do, the contact page is where to reach us: we'll explain which doors exist for your situation and, if you want, introduce you to a firm on our panel. You never pay us. Panel firms do.
We try twice, then we stop. There is no third call and no marketing list.