Social Services Minister Kevin Andrews has again flagged that the government is looking to rein in spending on the disability support pension, but has reassured recipients that potential changes will not be made in the upcoming May budget.
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The Coalition recently announced a review into Australia's welfare payments, noting it had concerns about the number of people on the disability support pension versus the Newstart payment (which has a difference of about $250 per fortnight for single people).
About 822,00 people receive the disability support pension at a cost of about $15 billion a year.
On Tuesday a Deloitte Access Economics analysis conducted for News Corp found that the federal government could save about $80 billion over 20 years, if it limited the rate at which the disability pension payments gross.
Currently, the pension increases with wages growth while Newstart is pegged to (the lower rate) of inflation.
Mr Andrews on Tuesday acknowledged that it had been ''evident for many years'' that there was a growing gap between the two payments.
''In the longer term, the government has to take into account the fact that there is now a perverse incentive for people to get on to the disability pension rather than on the Newstart allowance, because it pays more'' he told ABC TV.
Mr Andrews said that the welfare review - headed up by Patrick McClure - would examine the issue and report back to government ''soon''.
Disability advocates have previously criticised the review process, pointing out that there has been no public call for submissions and there are no clear terms of reference.
The Social Services Minister said that the Coalition was not looking to reduce disability support payments to those who were currently on the pension.
''This is about the medium to long-term sustainability of welfare in Australia,'' he said.
He later added that a change to pension indexation was ''not something which I expect we would be immediately addressing in the [upcoming] budget''.
''I think this is the sort of measure that we will look at carefully.''
Mr Andrews added that the government also had to take into account the findings of the Commission of Audit, which reported government last month and is due to report again at the end of the month.
So far, the commission's work has not been made public.
Mr Andrews said he had not yet seen the interim report.
''I haven't yet seen the Commission of Audit report, so I'm waiting along with most other Australians to see what that report contains.''
Mr Andrews was also asked if he thought the Newstart payment - at $36 a day for single people - was too low.
The Social Services Minister acknowledged that numerous reports had found the payment was too low, but cautioned that the Coalition had ''inherited a financial mess''.
''So we have to do anything within the context of the adverse financial situation we find ourselves [in] at the present time.''
Mr Andrews' comments came as Prime Minister Tony Abbott moved to calm fears within the homelessness sector that federal funding beyond June 30 is not secured.
