Person with disability from seeking work to employed with supports

Four programs, three agencies, one person, no shared front door. And at the end of it, a rule that makes 30 hours a week in open employment cost more than 35 hours in a segregated one.

workforceA working-age person with disability receiving the Disability Support Pension, entering open employment with workplace supports draft compare across jurisdictions

530 days elapsed
longest dependent chain

9 discrete steps
across 3 bodies

41% waiting on availability
scheduling or queue, not assessment

0 days saved by concurrency
vs. 530 if run end-to-end

Where the time goes

Critical-path days only. Steps that run alongside others are real work but do not lengthen the process, so counting them here would overstate the prize.

third party	240d	Waiting on an external body outside the regulator's control.
queue	150d	Waiting behind unrelated work in a backlog.
scheduling	66d	Waiting for a person or committee to become available.
assessment	60d	Someone is genuinely evaluating the merits.
applicant	14d	Waiting on the applicant to supply or fix something.

216 of 530 elapsed days are spent waiting for a person or a meeting rather than for a judgement to be formed. Removing that time changes no assessment standard and lowers no bar -- it is the cost of scheduling alone.

The process, step by step

Applies when: A person with disability seeks open employment and needs support to obtain or keep it.

#	Step	Who	Why it waits	Clock	Typical	Basis
1	Disability Support Pension assessment assessment Medical and functional assessment against the impairment tables and the program of support requirement.	Services Australia	queue	—	120 estimate	Social Security Act 1991 (Cth)
2	Referral to an Inclusive Employment Australia provider referral Connection to a specialist disability employment provider. after Disability Support Pension assessment 380d slack	Department of Social Services	queue	—	30 estimate	—
3	NDIS employment supports in the participant's plan assessment only if triggered Employment-related supports funded through the NDIS plan, including school leaver supports for young people. Triggered when: The person is an NDIS participant and seeks employment supports in their plan. after Disability Support Pension assessment 320d slack	National Disability Insurance Agency	queue	—	90 estimate	—
4	Job search, employer engagement and placement application after Referral to an Inclusive Employment Australia provider 140d slack	Department of Social Services	third party	—	240 estimate	—
5	Workplace Modification Assessment assessment An assessment of what changes or equipment the person needs, required for Employment Assistance Fund applications above $1,000. after Job search, employer engagement and placement 95d slack	Department of Social Services	scheduling	—	45 reported	—
6	Employment Assistance Fund application and reimbursement application Funding for workplace modifications, equipment, assistive technology, specialist support and Auslan interpreting. after Workplace Modification Assessment 35d slack	Department of Social Services	assessment	—	60 estimate	—
7	Supported Wage System productivity assessment assessment only if triggered An independent assessment of productive capacity, setting a pro-rata wage. Triggered when: The employer and worker use the Supported Wage System to set a productivity-based wage. after Job search, employer engagement and placement 95d slack	—	assessment	—	45 estimate	—
8	Commence work registration after Employment Assistance Fund application and reimbursement 14d slack	—	scheduling	—	21 estimate	—
9	Ongoing hours and income reporting registration Continuing obligation to report income and hours, against the rules that govern whether the pension continues. after Commence work	Services Australia	applicant	—	14 reported	Social Security Act 1991 (Cth)

on the critical path scheduling/queue = delay not caused by the assessment itself

Machine-flagged questions

These are produced automatically from the dependency graph. They are questions for a practitioner, not findings. Each one needs a person who has run this process to say whether the constraint is real.

Steps that may not need to wait

Referral to an Inclusive Employment Australia provider is a referral queued behind work by a different body. Does it consume that body's output, or is it merely sequenced that way by habit?

Proposed changes

One front door for disability employment support merge ~90d
Four programs, three agencies, one person. Inclusive Employment Australia removed time limits and widened eligibility — a genuinely good reform — and left the number of doors unchanged.
The 30 hour rule pays more for segregated work than open employment threshold
A Disability Support Pension recipient working 35 hours in an Australian Disability Enterprise keeps their pension. The same person working 35 hours in open employment may have it suspended. The Disability Royal Commission has recommended phasing out segregated employment.

Sources

Department of Social Services, Inclusive Employment Australia, replacing Disability Employment Services from 1 November 2025; 84 organisations offered funding; time limits removed and eligibility widened
Services Australia, published guidance on working while receiving the Disability Support Pension
JobAccess, published Employment Assistance Fund guidelines, including Workplace Modification Assessment for applications over $1,000
NDIS, published guidance on employment supports and School Leaver Employment Supports

Something wrong here?

This page is wrong in some way -- every page like it is. If you have run this process, the most useful thing you can do is tell us which step took longer than we say and why. Edit data/processes/au-disability-employment.toml and open a pull request, or send us the correction.