Department of Social Services
Department of Social Services
Social Services portfolio
Verified figures
- Contracts (all years): 3,096
- Contract value (all years): 8,460,081,477 AUD
- Contract value (2026): 32,582,819 AUD
- APS headcount: 2,741
- Budget 2026-27: 165,595,295 thousand AUD
- Highest total remuneration: 908,909 AUD
- Directory roles: 61
Figures use publishable matches only (alias, abn, exact, case, punct, trading_name, wide_exact). Retrieved 2026-09-01.
Coverage — named in the headline (40)
- 2026-02-26 — DSS has form when it comes to underperforming systems
- 2026-01-29 — DSS stuffs up $5 billion in payments to pensioners
- 2025-12-02 — Michael Lye: Department of Social Services secretary
- 2025-12-02 — Ray Griggs: Department of Social Services former secretary
- 2025-10-16 — MoGus interuptus: DSS capability review more questions than answers
- 2025-08-12 — DSS brief overlooks key super, pension reforms needed for secure retirements
- 2025-07-16 — Social Services cleared to pursue historical welfare debts
- 2025-05-12 — Plibersek takes Social Services, avoids NDIS
- 2025-05-12 — Labor begins major overhaul of social services with early childhood reforms, digital safety push
- 2025-03-25 — Budget 2025 sees Social Services cop first cuts in three years
- 2024-12-05 — Movers & Shakers: Social Services secretary, R&D review
- 2024-12-05 — New Social Services secretary a career civilian
- 2024-11-26 — Social Services continues to drive APS headcount surge
- 2024-11-18 — Ray Griggs: Social Services
- 2024-09-18 — Ray Griggs to step down as Social Services secretary
- 2024-09-02 — DSS opens consultation on disability foundational supports
- 2024-07-18 — Movers & Shakers: New DSS branch managers, F1 GP board
- 2024-06-25 — Flowers in the desert: DSS and the death of Deafblind Australia
- 2024-04-23 — DSS announces supported employment funding recipients
- 2023-11-05 — Ray Griggs: Social Services
- 2023-10-15 — ‘Digital first’ has made the social services frontline a lot tougher and rougher: so where to now?
- 2023-06-27 — ANAO has no recommendations for the Department of Social Services’ fund
- 2023-05-09 — Budget 2023: DFAT and Social Services biggest losers in APS numbers game
- 2023-02-14 — The Robodebt Files: Serena Wilson – DSS deputy secretary
- 2022-11-21 — Ray Griggs: Social Services secretary
- 2022-10-11 — Social Services finally junks 197k outstanding robodebt reviews
- 2022-09-13 — Social services staff to visit Norfolk Island in September
- 2022-08-31 — DSS questioned over absence of homelessness in disability strategy
- 2022-03-31 — Movers & shakers: Social Services’ new group manager
- 2021-08-03 — Victoria to establish new, stronger social services regulator
- 2021-01-14 — Department of Social Services loses appeal over $27,000 Centrelink debt
- 2020-06-15 — DSS launches COVID-19 disability information helpline
- 2020-04-28 — Kathryn Campbell on DSS’s pandemic response and why she’s proud to be a public servant
- 2020-01-31 — The missing middle in social services
- 2020-01-22 — Treasury dep sec switches to Social Services after long holiday and allegations
- 2019-11-10 — APS Commission and Social Services to ‘refresh’ disability strategy
- 2018-11-16 — Movers & shakers: reshuffle in the social services cluster
- 2018-11-12 — The Department of Social Services is looking for a new branch manager
- 2018-10-05 — Digitising social services could further exclude people already on the margins
- 2017-02-24 — DSS response: $10m welfare report helping to build actuarial valuations expertise in government
Passing mentions (10 shown)
Mentioned in the text but not the headline, so often not about this agency.
- 2026-08-24 — Planning for superdiversity in Australia
- 2026-08-13 — Bad feedback loops can hurt system confidence, ex-secretary warns
- 2026-07-16 — Bargaining, budgets, and fat cats: A perfect storm is on the way
- 2026-07-08 — Using the policy recipe, part 3: Five strategies for bringing the policy recipe to life
- 2026-07-02 — Movers & Shakers: Queensland and WA’s big week
- 2026-06-22 — WA’s play strategy to boost outcomes for children and families
- 2026-06-21 — Funding the backbone: Driving sustainable change in northern Australia
- 2026-06-04 — Movers & Shakers: ACT Reconciliation Council co-chair resigns
- 2026-05-26 — A national endowment model for Australia’s ageing challenge
- 2026-05-25 — How to bank the hundreds of millions in grant savings Canberra is sitting on
Names over time
What each source called this agency, and in which years. Taken from the sources themselves, not from a register of establishment dates — those are not published.
| Reported as | Source | Years | Rows |
|---|---|---|---|
| Social Services ⚠️ | APSC APS Employment Data | 2013-14 to 2025-26 | 2,868 |
| Social Services ⚠️ | APSC agency metrics | 2013-14 to 2025-26 | 231 |
| Department of Social Services | Annual report KMP disclosure | 2018-19 to 2024-25 | 82 |
| Department of Social Services | AusTender (names as at today, not as at the contract) | 2019-20 to 2026-27 | 3,096 |
| Department of Social Services | Annual report governance tables | 2019-20 to 2024-25 | 52 |
| Department of Social Services | Annual report expenditure | 2020-21 to 2024-25 | 28 |
| Department of Social Services | Portfolio Budget Statements | 2024-25 to 2029-30 | 280 |
⚠️ This agency has not always carried its current name. Figures in the earlier years were reported as Social Services (2013-14 to 2025-26). They are shown here because the series is continuous, not because the agency is.
Payments to organisations — as reported by the agency
| Category | Payments | Total |
|---|---|---|
| Non-consultancy contracts | 12 | $139,055,849 |
| Consultancy | 16 | $20,104,602 |
Largest recipients across all reported years
| Organisation | ABN | Reported total | Years |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mediabrands Australia Pty Ltd (19 002 966 001) | — | $37,516,000 | 2021-22 |
| Indue Limited (97 087 822 464) | — | $36,898,406 | 2020-21, 2021-22 |
| The University of Melbourne (84 002 705 224) | — | $28,693,868 | 2020-21, 2021-22 |
| Gillian Beaumont Recruitment Pty Ltd (58 107 780 683) | — | $18,998,866 | 2020-21 |
| Hays Specialist Recruitment (Australia) (47 001 407 281) | — | $16,769,036 | 2020-21 |
| Australian Bureau of Statistics (26 331 428 522) | — | $3,726,000 | 2020-21 |
| Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu (74 490 121 060) | — | $2,583,000 | 2021-22 |
| Alphabeta Advisors Pty Limited (91 603 412 013) | — | $2,416,033 | 2020-21 |
| BMF Advertising Pty Ltd (43 533 837 149) | — | $2,012,373 | 2020-21 |
| Ernst & Young (75 288 172 749) | — | $1,940,070 | 2020-21 |
| Bendelta Pty Ltd (58 105 151 326) | — | $1,872,397 | 2020-21 |
| The Monkeys Pty Limited (34 121 441 576) | — | $1,494,000 | 2021-22 |
From the expenditure disclosures in each annual report — a separate source from the AusTender contract figures above, and not directly comparable with them.
Workforce profile — as at 2025-12-31
| Measure | Value | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| % CALD | 18.3% | at this date |
| % Female | 72.2% | at this date |
| % Indigenous | 4.9% | at this date |
| % at the APS classification level | 63.9% | at this date |
| % non-ongoing | 2.9% | at this date |
| % part-time (ongoing employees) | 13.9% | at this date |
| % who have worked in only one agency (ongoing employees) | 45.2% | at this date |
| % with a bachelors degree or higher | 58.2% | at this date |
| % with a disability | 7.7% | at this date |
| Exit rate - from agency (ongoing employees) | 13.7% | Year ending December 2025 |
| Headcount | 2,741 | at this date |
| Mean Age (years) | 42.4 years | at this date |
| Median LOS in APS (years) | 7.4 years | at this date |
| Separation rate - from APS (ongoing employees) | 6.2% | at this date |
APSC APS Employment Data, counting this agency including any bodies beneath it. Headcount, not FTE — the APSED release does not publish FTE.
Bodies beneath this agency — as at 2025-12-31
Australian Institute of Family Studies · Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence Commission · National Commission for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children and Young People
From the APSC sub-agency breakdown. A body listed here is counted inside the workforce profile above, so do not add the two.
Year by year
| Measure | 2013-14 | 2014-15 | 2015-16 | 2016-17 | 2017-18 | 2018-19 | 2019-20 | 2020-21 | 2021-22 | 2022-23 | 2023-24 | 2024-25 | 2025-26 | 2026-27 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| APS headcount | 3,652 | 3,747 | 2,362 | 2,363 | 2,329 | 2,545 | 2,546 | 2,356 | 2,776 | 2,816 | 3,366 | 3,557 | 3,578 | |
| SES | 131 | 148 | 107 | 39 | 37 | 30 | 26 | 25 | 26 | 24 | 14 | |||
| Contracts | 666 | 575 | 551 | 348 | 425 | 271 | 235 | 25 | ||||||
| Contract value | $296,290,426 | $248,968,505 | $545,510,447 | $114,119,914 | $177,914,412 | $587,253,182 | $6,473,779,613 | $16,244,977 | ||||||
| Budget ($000) | 195,840,034 | 165,595,295 | ||||||||||||
| KMP disclosed | 10 | 8 | 8 | 3 | 9 | 5 | 7 | |||||||
| Top total pay | $792,062 | $850,918 | $817,949 | $0 | $908,909 | $895,020 | $547,755 |
An empty cell means no publishable row for that year — unknown, not nil. Never read a blank as a fall to zero. ⚠️ This agency has not always carried its current name. Figures in the earlier years were reported as Social Services (2013-14 to 2025-26). They are shown here because the series is continuous, not because the agency is.
Sources — annual reports
Each link opens transparency.gov.au — the published source the figures were read from. The label names the table to look for.
° The portal does not publish a path for this report, so the link opens the agency's reports on transparency.gov.au rather than that year directly. Pick the year from there.
