Department of Social Services
Annual Report 2014–15
Improving lifetime wellbeing.
Our vision
Improving the lifetime wellbeing of people and families in Australia
Our mission
To be Australia’s pre-eminent social policy agency
Key facts and figures
Social Security
$112.4 billion paid to people unable to fully support themselves
Ageing & Aged Care
Over 1 million older people received Aged Care Sector services
Housing
$115 million delivered to fund frontline homelessness services
Disability & Carers
235,349 people with disability were helped to improve their capacity to work
Families and Communities
Australian families and children were assisted on more than 2.7 million occasions through access to government supports and services
Early Childhood and Child Care
1.6 million children have benefited from our child care programmes
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Contents
Contents iii
Letter of transmittal iv
Secretary’s review 1
Part 1 Overview 8
Chapter 1 — Our Department 8
Chapter 2 — The portfolio 17
Part 2 Performance report 22
Chapter 3 — Our performance 22
Chapter 4 Outcome 1 — Social Security 25
Chapter 5 Outcome 2 — Families and Communities 53
Chapter 6 Outcome 3 — Ageing and Aged Care 71
Chapter 7 Outcome 4 — Housing 88
Chapter 8 Outcome 5 – Disability and Carers 92
Part 3 Management and Accountability 104
Chapter 9 — Our governance structure 104
Chapter 10 — External scrutiny 115
Chapter 11 — Managing our people 121
Chapter 12 — Managing our finances 126
Part 4 Financial statements 131
Chapter 13 — DSS Financial Statements 131
Part 5 Appendixes 134
Appendix A — Changes in our Department and the portfolio after the Administrative Arrangements Order of 23 December 2014 135
Appendix B — Resource statements 137
Appendix C — Family Tax Benefit reconciliation data 149
Appendix D — Changes to disability reporting 156
Appendix E — Compliance with the Carer Recognition Act 2010 157
Appendix F — Fraud Control Certificate 158
Appendix G — Staffing statistics 159
Appendix H — Work Health and Safety 164
Appendix I — Advertising and market research 165
Appendix J — Ecologically sustainable development and environmental performance 167
Appendix K — List of abbreviations and acronyms 171
Compliance index 175
Letter of transmittal
Finn Pratt AO PSM
Secretary
25 September 2015
The Hon Christian Porter MP
Minister for Social Services
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600
Dear Minister
It is my pleasure to present to you the Annual Report of the Department of Social Services for the financial year 2014–15, for presentation to the Parliament, in compliance with section 63(1) of the Public Service Act 1999 and section 46(1) of the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act 2013.
The report has been prepared in accordance with section 63 of the Public Service Act 1999 and in accordance with the Requirements for annual reports for departments, executive agencies and FMA Act bodies as approved by the Joint Committee of Public Accounts and Audit on 25 June 2015.
The report meets my reporting requirements under the child support scheme, the social security law and the family assistance law.
Yours sincerely
Finn Pratt
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Secretary’s review
I am pleased to present the Department of Social Services Annual Report 2014–15. It illustrates the breadth of our work and demonstrates the way in which our funding improves the lifetime wellbeing of Australians.
We touch many lives – the elderly, the sick, those with disability, people living in remote and regional areas, students, children and parents. Most Australians, particularly those in need, will benefit from our policies and programmes across their lifetimes.
Over the past 12 months, we have welcomed a new Minister the Hon Scott Morrison MP. We finalised a review of Australia’s welfare system and commenced implementing recommendations. This is an important area for the Government and as part of this work we are developing an ‘investment approach’ to welfare. This will ensure we invest in people early and direct funding where it will provide the most benefit, particularly in reducing long-term welfare dependency.
Over the past year we have made major reforms to child care, aged care and disability. The programmes and policies we have developed as part of these reforms will have a significant impact on those in our community that need it most.
Our significant achievements include:
Supporting people to participate in the workforce and find a job
The Government released a major report into Australia’s welfare system, A New System for Better Employment and Social Outcomes (the McClure Review). The McClure Review found that Australia would benefit from a simpler welfare system that supports people to participate in the workforce and secure employment. The Government has indicated that the report will be used as part of the longer-term vision of Australia’s welfare system. We are already taking some important steps with work underway to overhaul Australia’s welfare information and communication technology system.
Implementing an investment approach
The Government commenced work on implementing recommendations from the McClure Review, including taking steps to make Australia’s welfare system more effective, coherent and sustainable.
We are developing an ‘investment approach’ to the social security system. This approach will focus policies and programmes on people at greatest risk of long-term dependency and disadvantage, identifying who will benefit most from targeted services and supports and then ensuring we invest in them early.
More say for older people on aged care
This year we continued to reform our aged care system, to improve its responsiveness and flexibility, to better meet the needs of older Australians.
These significant reforms, which included the introduction of the consumer-driven care approach, the enhancement of My Aged Care, and the start of the Commonwealth Home Support Programme, will significantly increase older Australian’s ability to choose services and improve their access to services.
Helping parents back to work
Major changes to the child care system were announced in the Australian Government 2015–16 Budget, including the new Child Care Subsidy, Child Care Safety Net and the Nanny Pilot Programme. These initiatives will help parents get back into the workforce and assist them to remain in the workforce thanks to additional care options to help them balance work with the important task of raising their children.
Lifelong support for people with disability
We continued to support the roll out of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), services to Australians with a disability and families.
More than 17,000 people are currently being helped by the scheme in seven pilot sites, helping them change their lives by accessing the supports and services they need to live more independently and engage with their community. The NDIS is making a huge difference to people’s lives and participant satisfaction is high. The work of the past two-years will strongly support our transition to the full scheme, commencing in 2016.
When transition to the full scheme is complete, more than 460,000 people with disability will, for the first time, be given lifelong support and the chance to take control of their care.
Countering domestic violence
Addressing the unacceptable level of violence against women was elevated to the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) in 2015.
A number of key national initiatives have been implemented under the National Plan to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children 2010–2022.
During 2014–15 this included primary prevention and early intervention activities, the development of the free DAISY app, which connects women with services and support in their area, and a series of discussions with culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) women to determine the issues and challenges faced in CALD communities.
In April 2015, COAG also agreed to undertake urgent action to develop a national domestic violence order (DVO) scheme, where DVOs will be automatically recognised and enforceable in any state or territory and national perpetrator standards to ensure perpetrators of violence against women are held to account at the same standard across Australia.
Going forward we will lead the national campaign to reduce violence against women and their children in 2015–16.
Streamlining grants
As part of a broad plan to boost efficiency and remove unnecessary red tape we have streamlined our grant processes. This means the organisations we fund to deliver valuable services to individuals, families and communities across Australia have greater capacity to concentrate their efforts where they are needed most and achieve effective and targeted outcomes.
The simplified programme arrangements consolidate funding rounds and move us towards having a single grant agreement for each provider, cutting down on administrative costs through streamlined performance reporting and simpler financial acquittal reporting.
Financial management
We are responsible for around one-third of the Australian Government Budget. This financial year, we managed appropriations totalling $131.224 billion, comprising $130.507 billion of administered funding and $0.717 billion of departmental funding.
Our strong financial and resource management resulted in a small surplus attributable to our Department.
Looking forward
During 2014–15, we continued to develop and deliver policies and programmes that improve the lifetime wellbeing of people and families in Australia.
In 2015–16, we will build on this work by:
» Reforming our social security system
̶ We will implement an ‘investment approach’ to Australia’s social security system, including longer-term welfare reforms.
̶ We will rebalance the pension assets test to make it fairer, better targeted and sustainable by increasing the assets test free areas to assist those with modest assets holdings and increasing the assets test taper rate to reduce support to those with higher levels of assets who have greater capacity to support themselves.
» Supporting families and communities
̶ We will provide settlement services that help refugees and migrants gain independence and participate in Australian society.
» Improving housing and homelessness services
̶ We will promote housing and homelessness outcomes through policy reforms directed at increasing the availability and affordability of housing and clarifying the roles and responsibilities of the Commonwealth, states and territories under the Reform of the Federation process.
̶ We will implement the 2015–17 National Partnership Agreement on Homelessness to ensure that homelessness services are effective and prioritised towards homelessness arising from domestic and family violence and youth homelessness.
» Supporting people with disability and carers
̶ We will finalise negotiations with state and territory governments and the National Disability Insurance Agency to deliver the full national roll out of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) and we will work with state and territory governments to develop a new NDIS national framework for quality and safeguards.
̶ We will begin to roll out the Australian Government’s integrated plan for carer support services, making it easier to access information and services.
̶ We will introduce the JobAccess Gateway, a new central information entry point that will streamline employment services for job seekers with disability and potential employers.
This has been a significant time of change for our Department and we have met the challenges and look forward to the opportunities next year. Our work means we are front and centre of the Government’s social policy agenda and we consistently deliver services to millions of Australians.
I am honoured to be heading a team of dedicated and professional staff in DSS who are all contributing to making DSS the pre-eminent social policy department.
Finn Pratt
Secretary, Department of Social Services
September 2015
Figure 0.1 Department of Social Services outcome and programme structure, as at 30 June 2015
1 Social Security
Financial support for individuals and families who are unable to fully support themselves by providing a sustainable payment and concessions systems.
Programmes
» Family Tax Benefit
» Child Payments
» Income Support for Vulnerable People
» Income Support for People in Special Circumstances
» Supplementary Payments and Support for Income Support Recipients
» Income Support for Seniors
» Allowances and Concessions for Seniors
» Income Support for People with Disability
» Income Support for Carers
» Working Age Payments
» Student Payments
» Cross programme: Rent Assistance
» Programme Support for Outcome 1
Go to: Chapter 4
2 Families and Communities
Stronger families and more resilient communities by developing civil society and by providing family and community services.
Programmes
» Families and Communities
» Paid Parental Leave
» Social and Community Services
» Support for Child Care System
» Child Care Benefit
» Child Care Rebate
» Programme Support for Outcome 2
Go to: Chapter 5
3 Ageing and Aged Care
Improved wellbeing for older Australians through targeted support, access to quality care and related information services.
Programmes
» Access and Information
» Home Support
» Home Care
» Residential and Flexible Care
» Workforce and Quality
» Ageing and Service Improvement
» Programme Support for Outcome 3
Go to: Chapter 6
4 Housing
Increase housing supply, improved community housing and assisting individuals experiencing homelessness through targeted support and services.
Programmes
» Housing and Homelessness
» Affordable Housing
» Programme Support for Outcome 4
Go to: Chapter 7
5 Disability and Carers
Improve independence of, and participation by, people with disability, including improved support for carers, by providing targeted support and services.
Programmes
» Disability Mental Health and Carers
» National Disability Insurance Scheme
» Programme Support for Outcome 5
Go to: Chapter 8
Case Study: Joyce chooses independence
You can get a lot done in 82 years of living. For Joyce Chandler, staying independent and active is the key.
“As you get older you need to be independent and do what you can, as long as you can,” Joyce said. “I live with my daughter and my grandson. She works full-time so she’s quite busy, and he’s just turned 17 so he’s doing exams. I don’t want to be a burden on them.”
Joyce achieves this by staying independent thanks to help from her service provider, under the Australian Government’s consumer directed care model for home care.
This meant Joyce could work with her provider to choose the support services she needs.
Joyce chose to have carers come in a few times a week to help her clean the house.
“The girls are always so bright and cheerful — I look forward to them coming over, we’ve become friends.”
Funds from the home care package were also used to provide Joyce with a personal alarm to bring assistance if she has a fall or an accident.
“It gives me freedom. I feel like I can get around and do things for myself, which is a big thing when you’re 82.”
Joyce said consumer directed care meant she could “stay home, with the family and not be a burden to my daughter as much as I would be without help. That’s a great relief to me and makes me very happy.”
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Part 1 Overview
Chapter 1 — Our Department
The Department of Social Services’ policies and services respond to people’s needs throughout their lives.
We fund services and payments that assist families, children and older people, provide a safety net for people who cannot fully support themselves, enhance the wellbeing of people with high needs, assist those who need help with care and support a diverse and harmonious society.