Have you really sat down and thought to yourself, why has there been such an increase in DSP? Sure there are those who maybe should not be on the payment .......personally I don't know of any, but then again I don't know others peoples lives inside & out.
The reason I believe there has been a sharp rise is because they are finally recognising disabilities that were not previously acknowledged. Mental illnesses like Bipolar & Depression have come to the fore and they finally recognised that these people really did need medical & financial support. They recognise things such as Autisim, ADD/ADHD and Aspergers as genuine lifelong disabilities. 

Getting approval for the DSP is not easy, it tooks months of fighting to get it for my daughter because there is no name for what she has .......no basket they could put her in........she is simply ......intellectually disabled.

My daughter is almost 18.........she looks just like everyone else, she can talk like you & I but she can barely read & even when she does read ....she does not understand what she just read in most instances. Nevertheless she is disabled and she deserves all the support she gets. She is in Year 12 and she will finish with a HSC Life Skills certificate. I am so proud of her ........she tries so **bleep** hard.....but sadly her reading never improved despite all efforts from myself, teachers & assistants.
My daughter wants to work but to what capacity she can remains to be apparent, so she will finish school this year and move on to a "Getting ready for work" program next year. Would you deny her the support she is getting? If you saw her, met her, talked to her you would more than likely say "no way, there is nothing wrong with her", but then.......you know nothing about her, really.  You can't judge a book by its cover.

The size of the number of DSP recipients in NSW is double that of Ukraine’s active army personnel and exceeds the population of Pacific Island states, including Vanuatu and New Caledonia

What? No mention of the Swiss Navy?

to OP:

Misinformation. The analogy used is out of context and quite inappropriate IMO and your approach I find offensive.I do not for the life of me understand why anyone reading your opener would grant you a kudo. Beats me why.

I am a carer.

     Very well said lindamaree63, Centrelink like to put people in baskets & not everyone fits in one. Good luck to you & your daughter, i hope she does well in the rest of the HSC.

          I can see it from both sides here, i understand people who are working & struggling to make ends meet etc might want someone to blame for the ridiculously high cost of living in many parts of this country. They might look at people on DSP/Newstart as 'bludgers' and think they have it easy when here they are working their backsides off to make ends meet & not getting the same benefits like concessions on bills.

              This is exactly what politicians want people to think & so they do things like propose no one under 30 will get the dole etc, its to appeal to the right wing dole hating brigade so they can distract people from the real issues. Some people who are disabled but deemed to have a partial capacity to work, i think its 15 hours per fortnight, will be put on Newstart & sent to a job network to help them prepare & find suitable work.

            I have a friend in this situation, she has a mental illness which severely effects their ability to be consistent in anything really. she has mood swings which make it very hard for her to either get motivated when depressed or get to sleep when more energized. She did hold down a 20 hr a week job for 2 years but was then sacked after having to go into hospital for a few weeks. She can probably never work full time because its too stressful, but if she was at least she could have taken sick leave which part timers don't get.

        Anyway so now she's with the job network which is fully funded by the govt & costs ALOT OF TAX PAYERS MONEY, have a look on Google if you want to know just how much. She has found them to be quite useless as far as they have not had enough training and to understand her problems. All its doing is causing her further stress, she woud be far better of on DSP doing some voluntary work that she wants to do when she's able. It would probably cost about the same or less to the govt for her DSP than what they are paying the job network to have her on their books.

     The issue is not so much some people on DSP cannot work at all, its all the barriers to them being able to hold down a job, including lousy employers who only care about their bottom line. I also know of a guy who was let go from a job once revealing their mental illness to the boss who conveniently came up with some unrelated reason to fire him, against the law yes, but hard to prove.

           There are many disabled people who want to work but its not practical for whatever reason, just think about that before you judge someone!

I think they are more interested in Middle Eastern Drug gangs who are on the disability support pension. I don't think they are going after the disabled or needy.

I am happy if they get the rorters but I have 2 disabled nephews and they say  are safe from any cuts because they have read   about what the budget is about and asked the right questions.