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To About Time staff,
Congratulations on your newspaper. I am writing to the legal corner as I have a concern about the length of the sentence (imprisonment) and the Disability Support Pension eligibility criteria.
Q1. What is the legal sentence period after which an inmate must reapply for the DSP?
NSW prison rumours say under two years and one is automatically reinstated onto the DSP, over two years, and one has to reapply and resubmit all the new paperwork for a new claim for the DSP.
As this issue would affect about 15% of the population, I figure it would be an important question to seek your help with. Thanks.
Regards,
Al
To About Time staff,
Congratulations on your newspaper. I am writing to the legal corner as I have a concern about the length of the sentence (imprisonment) and the Disability Support Pension eligibility criteria.
Q1. What is the legal sentence period after which an inmate must reapply for the DSP?
NSW prison rumours say under two years and one is automatically reinstated onto the DSP, over two years, and one has to reapply and resubmit all the new paperwork for a new claim for the DSP.
As this issue would affect about 15% of the population, I figure it would be an important question to seek your help with. Thanks.
Regards,
Al
Hi Al,
Thank you for the question. While imprisoned, your payments are suspended. You will need to lodge a whole new claim if the payments are suspended for more than two years for DSP or 13 weeks for the Age Pension. If under two years of imprisonment, you do not need to make a whole new claim, but you will need to fill out a ‘request for restoration’ of the Disability Support Pension form. It does not ‘automatically’ reinstate. You must fill out the form within seven days of release, if you are not able to lodge the form while in prison. Ask someone to provide it to you to fill it out while you’re in prison, in anticipation of your release.
Once released, you can go to www.servicesaustralia.gov.au or visit a service centre. Call 132 717 for Disability Support Pension or 132 300 for Age Pension. If you need to speak with them in your language, call 131 202. Services Australia can also translate documents for free.
If you are charged with breaking a rule in prison, this can result in disciplinary action, in addition to potential criminal charges.
Australia has two sources of law: legislation and common law. Legislation is made by parliaments and is available in documents called acts. Common law is made by judges in court decisions and covers areas that have not been legislated.
If you believe your right to a fair trial has not been provided, you should seek advice from a lawyer.
A parole order will include general and specific conditions. These include getting approval from the relevant authority for any travel interstate, or overseas.
In law, silence is considered a fundamental right that provides fairness in criminal proceedings.
This article discusses some of the human rights that may be relevant in prison with reference to human rights protections under the Human Rights Act 2019 (QLD) in Queensland.
I wonder if you could explain the new "No Body No Parole" law in New South Wales, where now people charged with murder or manslaughter need letters from the head of police?
The federal election is coming up. It happens about every three years. It’s for electing the government for the whole country – the federal government.
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