Submission: Disability Support Services Bill
The Disability Support Services Bill intends to:
Set out the purpose of DSS and provide an authorising framework for DSS system policy settings and funding, that: Aims to improve consistency, fairness and transparency of decision making. Clarifies that responsibility for the care of disabled people rests with family and whānau where appropriate.
Clarify existing employment relationships within the DSS system if a disabled person employs a carer.
Respond to the Crown’s fiscal and litigation risk following the Supreme Court judgment regarding paid family care in Fleming v Attorney-General [2025].
CPAG’s concerns with the Bill:
The potential for Clause 8 and Clause 11(3) to drastically reduce the amount of and access to income support received by households with disability.
The severe inattentiveness of the Bill to the economic realities and enforcing unpaid care burdens placed on households with disabled children via Clause 12-15.
A lack of proper, accessible, and democratic consultation with the communities this Bill directly impacts.
CPAG urges the Social Services and Community Select Committee to:
Ground the Bill firmly in the UNCRPD, Te Tiriti o Waitangi, Enabling Good Lives principles, and the social model of disability.
Remove Clause 11(3)(f) and (g), which authorise harmful income- and asset-based criteria for DSS programmes.
Rewrite Clause 8 to clearly define the limits of family responsibility and to centre the choice and control of disabled people.
Rewrite Clauses 12–15 to restore employment rights, fair wages, and legal recourse for family carers.
Move substantive details of eligibility, funding, and decision-making into the primary legislation to ensure democratic oversight.
Extend the current submission period and ensure the entire process is fully accessible to the disability community.