Inclusive Employment Australia will replace the Disability Employment Services program on 1 November 2025.
A new disability employment program
Inclusive Employment Australia is a new specialist disability employment program. It assists people with disability, injury or health condition to find and maintain work and grow their career.
It will replace the Disability Employment Services (DES) program on 1 November 2025.
Benefits of Inclusive Employment Australia
- More people with disability will have opportunities to work.
- You will get better support to find and keep a job.
- There will be more providers skilled in working with people with different disabilities or from diverse backgrounds.
- There will be no more time limits – you can stay with your provider for as long as you need.
- Providers will be more responsive to your needs.
- You can be on the program even if you only work a few hours a week.
Features of the program
- You can choose your provider.
- You can move to a new provider at any time.
- You don’t need to get government payments to be in the program.
- There will be some new providers – some may have skills that interest you.
How this change will affect you
We sent DES participants a letter about the change.
Read the letter to DES participants.
Inclusive Employment Australia – first letter to participants
Access thisIf you need this letter translated into another format, email DES2025Transition@dss.gov.au.
Your work and payment
Your work and payment will stay the same.
What you need to do
You don’t need to do anything else now. You should continue doing the activities agreed to with your DES provider.
We will write to you again with more information and support to help you move to Inclusive Employment Australia.
Mutual obligations
For people who have mutual obligation requirements, we will pause them from 16 October to 31 October 2025, inclusive.
You will still get your payment during this period. You won’t get any demerits for not meeting your mutual obligations.
If your future work capacity is under 8 hours
More people will be able to take part in the new program. You won't have to be able to work 8 hours or more per week.
From 16 October 2025, if you are re-assessed with a future work capacity of zero to 7 hours you will be eligible to join Inclusive Employment Australia on 1 November 2025.
Your personal information
We are getting ready for Inclusive Employment Australia.
We will use the current personal and sensitive information you have provided your current DES provider to move you to Inclusive Employment Australia.
This includes moving your personal and sensitive information to the Inclusive Employment Australia IT system.
Your information will be shared with your Inclusive Employment Australia provider who will assist you in this program.
Please let us know if you do not wish for us to share your information. This may affect your ability to participate in Inclusive Employment Australia. If you have mutual obligation requirements this means you will not receive your income support payment.
It is important to keep your information with us up to date so the information we provide is accurate and complete.
Our privacy policy also contains information on:
- how we store and handle your personal and sensitive information
- how you can access or correct your personal information
- how to complain about handling of your personal information.
Read the Privacy Policy(Opens external website).
Privacy and consent forms
When you start with your Inclusive Employment Australia provider, they will ask you to complete one of the following:
- Inclusive Employment Australia Privacy Notification and Consent Form
- Direct Registration Form.
These forms are referred to as privacy and consent forms. They are used to collect, use and share your personal and sensitive information for Inclusive Employment Australia. These privacy and consent forms will help you to understand how your provider will handle your personal information.
More information
Speak to your current DES provider.
Call the DES transition line on 1800 227 337.
- If English is not your first language and you need an interpreter, you can still speak to the DES Transition Line. Call the Translating and Interpreting Service (TIS National) on 13 14 50 and ask for 1800 227 337.
- If you are d/Deaf, hard-of-hearing or have speech communication difficulties, use the National Relay Service to contact the DES transition line. For more information, visit Access Hub(Opens external website).
Learn more about other Disability employment reforms(Opens external website).