Costello and Secretary, Department of Social Services (Social services second review)

This matter concerned an application for review of a decision to affirm the rejection of a disability support pension claim. The applicant, Costello, sought to establish eligibility for the pension based on various medical conditions, including chronic pain, diabetes, vision impairment, depression, irritable bowel syndrome, and traumatic brain injury. The Secretary of the Department of Social Services contended that the applicant did not meet the required threshold of impairment points. The Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) was required to determine the applicant's eligibility for the disability support pension.

The central legal issues before the Tribunal were whether the applicant had any physical, intellectual, or psychiatric impairment, and if so, whether these impairments attracted a combined rating of 20 points or greater under the Impairment Tables. The Tribunal also needed to consider whether the applicant had a continuing inability to work, as defined by the relevant legislation, although this became unnecessary given the findings on the impairment rating. The Impairment Tables, established under the Social Security (Tables for the Assessment of Work-related Impairment for Disability Support Pension) Determination 2011, were to be applied to assess the functional impact of the applicant's conditions.

The Tribunal's reasoning focused on assessing each of the applicant's conditions against the criteria in the Impairment Tables, particularly the requirement that a condition must be fully diagnosed, treated, and stabilised to attract an impairment rating. The Tribunal found that while the applicant's chronic pain, diabetes, and right eye enucleation were fully diagnosed, treated, and stabilised, they did not collectively meet the threshold for a 20-point rating. The chronic pain and diabetes were assessed as attracting 10 points under Table 1, and the vision impairment attracted 5 points under Table 12, resulting in a total of 15 points. The Tribunal determined that the applicant's depression, irritable bowel syndrome, and traumatic brain injury were not fully diagnosed, treated, and stabilised during the qualification period, and therefore could not be assigned impairment ratings.

Consequently, the Tribunal found that the applicant had a total impairment rating of 15 points, which was insufficient to meet the requirement of 20 points or more under subsection 94(1)(b) of the Social Security Act 1991. As this criterion was not met, the Tribunal did not need to consider the applicant's continuing inability to work. The decision under review was affirmed.