Medical qualifications

To qualify medically for Supported Living Payment the client needs to be either:

• both permanently and severely restricted in their capacity for work because of a health condition, or injury or disability, from an accident or condition they have had since birth or
• totally blind

Note totally blind and legally blind are not the same.

Permanent means the health condition, injury or disability the client has is expected to continue for at least 2 years. The client's health condition, injury or disability is also considered permanent when they have been diagnosed with a terminal illness (where the client is not expected to live longer than 2 years).

Severely means that the client cannot regularly work 15 hours or more per week in open employment. Open employment is any employment other than sheltered employment.

Note the client could be in sheltered employment if the employment conditions need to be specifically designed to cater for their needs for them to work. This applies whether the client is seeking full-time employment, self-employment, supported employment or contract work.

When applying for Supported Living Payment, the client can provide either a medical certificate or suitable existing assessments from their registered medical practitioner, nurse practitioner or psychologist.

Note a psychologist cannot complete a medical certificate for the person who is being cared for when assessing a client's eligibility to Supported Living Payment (caring for a person).

The client may be referred to a designated health practitioner when:

• their registered medical practitioner, nurse practitioner or psychologist indicates that a second opinion from a designated health practitioner is appropriate or
• eligibility to Supported Living Payment is unclear from the medical information they have provided or
• they are unable or fail to provide existing medical reports or a medical certificate from their own registered medical practitioner, nurse practitioner or psychologist, and MSD holds insufficient information to decide eligibility or
• MSD is concerned the information on the medical certificate and the diagnosis are inconsistent

Note if the client is not both permanently and severely restricted for work, they may still be limited in their capacity to work, or be permanently restricted but able to work more than 15 hours. In these cases MSD should consider whether they are eligible to get Jobseeker Support or Jobseeker Support on grounds of hardship.

If the client meets the medical qualification but they do not meet the residence requirements for Supported Living Payment, they may be able to get an Emergency Benefit, see: Non-residentially qualified.