Formed 19 December 1972 Headquarters Canberra | Dissolved 21 October 1998 | |
Preceding Department Department of Health (I) - for health and hospital benefits schemes Department of Social Services (I) - for all other functions Superseding agency Department of Family and Community Services Jurisdiction Commonwealth of Australia | ||
The Department of Social Security (also called the DSS) was the government department in Australia, which administered the Social Security system. The Department existed between 1972 and 1998.
History
The Department was one of several new departments established by the Whitlam Government, a wide restructuring that revealed some of the new government's program.
The Department's delivery of payments and services functions was taken over by Centrelink in 1997. The creation of Centrelink meant significant changes to DSS, with the Department shrinking in size to approximately 700 staff who were tasked with policy formulation and advisory functions. The Department was dissolved completely in October 1998 with the creation of the new Department of Family and Community Services, that took on all remaining DSS functions.