Australian Government
Department of Veterans’ Affairs
Submission to the Joint Standing Committee Inquiry into the integrity of the National
Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS)
The Department of Veterans’ Affairs (DVA) welcomes the opportunity to contribute to the Committee’s inquiry into the integrity of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS).
On 17 December 2025, as part of the 2025–26 Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook (MYEFO), the Australian Government announced an investment of $203.1 million over 4 years for the “Strengthening Program Integrity and Veterans’ Advocacy” measure. Included in that funding is an investment of $151.0 million over 4 years from 2025–26 (plus $52.0 million in 2029–30 and $45.2 million per year ongoing from 2030–31) to improve integrity capability at DVA.
Program Integrity – a shared challenge
Ensuring the integrity of payments made under government programs is a shared challenge for agencies responsible for administering those programs. The Commonwealth Fraud and Corruption Control Framework estimates that between 3% to 5.95% of Australian Government expenditure could be lost to fraud and error.
DVA works with thousands of providers across Australia – including health care professionals and veteran advocates – to provide critical services to support the health and wellbeing of the veteran community. The vast majority of those providers act ethically to support veterans. However, in recent years DVA has detected an increase in incidents of unethical and dishonest behaviour, including:
- Overcharging and duplicate claiming, including duplicate invoices or reports, and excessive billing for diagnostics or assessments;
- Unnecessary or inappropriate services, such as the overuse of imaging or investigations, or claims for brief or non-substantive interactions;
- False or misleading clinical activity, including inflating injuries or illnesses, signing referrals or prescribing without consultation, and claiming for services not delivered;
- Misrepresentation and deceptive conduct, including misleading veterans about their organisation’s links to DVA to obtain personal information for enrolment or fraudulent claiming;
- Undisclosed conflicts of interest, such as commission-based referral relationships between advocates and health providers; and
Internet: www.dva.gov.au Phone: 1800 VETERAN (1800 838 372) GPO Box 9998, Brisbane QLD 4001 Page 1 of 3
- Identity and credential misuse, including use of former employees’ provider numbers to submit false claims.
DVA has worked quickly to address these issues, and will continue to strengthen its capability in detecting, assessing and responding to provider behaviour that seeks to undermine the integrity of the policies, processes and payments that it administers to support the health and wellbeing of veterans and families of veterans.
Knowledge sharing across agencies
Close collaboration between government agencies is critical to effectively address threats to program and payment integrity. Often there is strong similarity between the misconduct typologies seen across programs and, in some cases, the same bad actors seek to exploit multiple payment schemes. For example, ACIC reporting shows that serious and organised crime networks ‘scheme-hop’ – moving from one government scheme to another in order to defraud programs designed to support the most vulnerable people in the Australian community. For example, the ACIC’s report ‘NDIS fraud caseload: Footprints across Australian Government payments and programs’ identified 16 providers from the NDIS fraud caseload who are also DVA providers. Subsequent to this report, one of the shared DVA/NDIA providers has become the subject of a FFT Joint Analyst Working Group (JAG) investigation. Sharing information, best practice and capability between agencies is crucial to address program-specific threats and to identify and respond to threats that span multiple programs.
There is a strong framework in place to support cooperation between agencies in countering fraud and other threats to payment integrity. In particular:
- The Commonwealth Fraud Prevention Centre – supports a coordinated and effective approach to countering fraud across the Australian Government by providing agencies with practical guidance and tools to build capability, enabling collaboration, data sharing and collective responses to emerging risks, and empowering decision-makers with robust evidence and insights to drive proactive and informed action against fraud.
- The Fraud Fusion Taskforce (FFT) – a multi-agency initiative jointly led by Services Australia and the National Disability Insurance Agency, bringing together 23 Commonwealth agencies (including DVA) to combat fraud and serious and organised crime. Established in November 2022, it strengthens government payment systems by improving collaboration, information sharing and workforce capability across participating agencies.
DVA has used these frameworks extensively as we seek to strengthen our program integrity capability. We sought advice from NDIA, Services Australia and other FFT members on options for the optimal organisational structure for the Provider Integrity Division, established in late 2025 to implement the MYEFO measure. DVA has provided a seconded officer to the ACIC’s Fraud Fusion Centre and supported the early growth of our own program integrity workforce with secondments from NDIA and Services Australia. DVA is also working closely with the NDIA and Services Australia on the development of intelligence and case management systems that are essential to understand and address program integrity threats at scale.
Internet: www.dva.gov.au Phone: 1800 VETERAN (1800 838 372) GPO Box 9998, Brisbane QLD 4001 Page 2 of 3
Conclusion
DVA recognises that protecting the integrity of government programs is essential to maintaining public trust and ensuring that support reaches those who genuinely need it. While most providers act ethically and in the best interests of veterans, emerging integrity risks – often mirroring those seen across other government schemes – require sustained, coordinated and intelligence-led responses. Through significant new investment, the establishment of a dedicated Provider Integrity Division, and deep engagement with whole-of-government frameworks such as the Commonwealth Fraud Prevention Centre and the Fraud Fusion Taskforce, DVA is strengthening its capability to prevent, detect and respond to provider misconduct.
DVA remains committed to sharing intelligence, building cross-agency capability, and contributing to collective efforts to safeguard the integrity of government payments, including the NDIS, while continuing to support the health and wellbeing of Australia’s veteran community.
Internet: www.dva.gov.au Phone: 1800 VETERAN (1800 838 372) GPO Box 9998, Brisbane QLD 4001 Page 3 of 3