Since 2010 there has been a marked convergence between the major parties on social security policy. Labor (2007– 2013) initially softened mutual obligation but retained the bulk of Howard-era reforms. To prove its credentials as ‘the party of work, not welfare’ (Grattan 2011), Labor further refined eligibility for the Disability Support Pension and brought forward new eligibility rules for Parenting Payment.
The last comprehensive review of the system (Reference Group on Welfare Reform 2015) found it ‘out of step’ with both contemporary ‘labour market realities and community expectations’ and recommended substantial reform.
Targeting and the dilution of entitlement
Expenditure has been increasingly targeted to groups considered deserving of assistance—namely low-income families with dependent children and retirees (through the age pension and subsidies for private superannuation).
Though the transfer system has retained its redistributive character, targeting has reinforced the distinction between different classes of payments and eroded the entitlements of those at the margins of eligibility.
People with disability are ineligible for the disability pension if they are assessed as capable of working 15 hours a week (Services Australia 2020a). However, higher expectations have not been accompanied by investment in specialist employment support and there has been a steep increase in the proportion of people with significant disability living in poverty.
Family payments have generally defied the trend towards austerity, though sole parents have been subject to the same erosion of entitlement as disability pensioners. Since the 1980s transfers to families with dependent children have become more targeted to low-income households,andmore generous; however, the dent to child poverty rates has since been reversed as housing costs have risen (Harding, Lloyd & Greenwell 2000).
