A wheelchair-bound disabled woman has interrupted a speech by the prime minister in Sydney, complaining that federal rules have trapped her on an unfairly low income.

During Julia Gillard's speech at the National Disability Services CEO conference on Monday, Mel Leckie spoke up from the floor about her financial straits as a paraplegic.

Ms Gillard stopped speaking and listened quietly from the lectern, along with the large audience, as the 28-year-old Adelaide woman read from a handwritten statement.

Ms Leckie said: "Prime minister, are you aware that the disability pension is nearly 67 per cent of national minimum wage?"

She said people with permanent disabilities like herself were allowed to earn only $152 a fortnight and any earnings beyond that meant a 50 cents in the dollar reduction in pension payments.

"This discrimination has existed for 60 years."

Ms Leckie said the pension alone did not even cover her ongoing medical needs and doctors' appointments.

She said she would need to work for a minimum of 27 hours every week just to equal the minimum wage.

"We're listening," Ms Gillard said, adding she would arrange for a staff member from her office to talk to Ms Leckie.

"But I would say this, I'm proud to lead a government that made an historic difference to the level of the disability support pension and to the way in which it intersects with work so people get to keep more of the money that they earn through participating in the workforce."

Ms Leckie later told AAP she became a paraplegic after jumping from the roof of her school in a suicide attempt after being bullied at the age of 17.

"I was not depressed when I jumped. I am depressed now only because I am continuously fighting with the government just to get to the end of the week."

Ms Leckie said there were far better pension and extra income provisions for aged pensioners and vision-impaired people.

"I just want to be able to work and look after myself."

A spokesman for the prime minister's office told AAP the government had been in regular correspondence with Ms Leckie and "it's likely she'll receive assistance under the (National Disability Insurance Scheme) NDIS".