National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 Submission 1050
Submission Opposing the National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026
Submitted by:
NDIS Participant with Multiple Complex Conditions Requiring 24-Hour Care
Melbourne, Victoria
26 May 2026
To the Senate Community Affairs Legislation Committee
Introduction
I am an NDIS participant living with multiple complex and permanent disabilities that require 24-hour care and support. My conditions are fluctuating and involve significant daily functional impairments. I rely heavily on the NDIS for essential supports that enable me to live with dignity, manage health risks, and avoid institutionalisation.
I strongly oppose the National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026. While I support sustainability,
National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 Submission 1050
this Bill undermines the scheme’s founding principles of choice, control, and reasonable and necessary supports under the NDIS Act and the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). It prioritises cost containment over individual needs, placing vulnerable participants like me at severe risk.
The Bill introduces harsher eligibility rules, standardised assessments, loss of unspent funds on plan rollover, restricted review rights, and broad ministerial powers. These changes will have devastating personal impacts on people with high and complex support needs.
Ten Major Points of Opposition
- Loss of Unused Funds on Plan Rollover The Bill mandates that unspent funds will not carry over when a plan reaches its end date and a renewed plan is issued. For someone requiring 24- hour care with fluctuating conditions, unspent funds serve as critical contingency buffers for emergencies, equipment failures, or sudden health deteriorations. Removing this safety net forces participants to rush spending or risk losing funds,
National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 Submission 1050
undermining prudent financial management and increasing vulnerability.
-
Lack of Effective Appeals Process for Renewed Plans Renewed plans under the Bill largely replicate previous plans without unspent funds or one-off allocations and are not appealable in the same way as original plans. This removes a vital safeguard. For participants with complex needs, automated renewals ignore real-world changes in health or circumstances, leaving no meaningful recourse when supports are inadequate.
-
Significant Barriers to Reviews and Changes of Circumstances The Bill imposes stricter criteria and longer response times (including 90-day claim windows) for unscheduled reassessments, requiring proof of “significant and ongoing” functional decline. For those with multiple fluctuating conditions needing 24/7 care, this creates dangerous delays in accessing necessary adjustments, potentially leading to health crises or hospitalisation.
National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 Submission 1050
-
Excessive Government and Ministerial Controls The Bill grants broad ministerial powers to reduce funding for entire support categories (e.g., by percentage cuts to community participation or capacity building) without individual appeals. It also expands rule-making powers and centralises decision-making. This strips participant choice and control, replacing individualised planning with top-down bureaucracy that cannot account for complex, high-needs cases like mine.
-
Tighter Eligibility Criteria Risking Exclusion Standardised, evidence-based assessments and narrower definitions of permanent and significant disability will disproportionately exclude or underfund people with psychosocial, fluctuating, invisible, or complex multi-condition disabilities. Many current participants with high support needs may face reassessment risks.
-
Cuts to Capacity Building and Social/Community Participation Supports The Bill enables resets and reductions in these areas, which are essential for preventing isolation and maintaining wellbeing. For a participant
National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 Submission 1050
requiring 24-hour care, these supports help sustain family relationships and community connections that reduce overall system costs.
-
Reduced Participant Choice and Control New support lists, standardised planning frameworks, and ministerial determinations shift power away from participants toward government gatekeeping. This directly contradicts the NDIS’s original intent and my lived experience of needing flexible, personalised supports.
-
Shifting Costs onto Families and Other Systems By limiting NDIS supports, the Bill will force greater reliance on under-resourced family carers, state health systems, and welfare services. For families supporting 24/7 care recipients, this creates unsustainable financial and emotional burdens.
-
Enhanced Debt Recovery and Governance Centralisation Stronger debt recovery powers combined with governance changes increase administrative fear and reduce flexibility. Lesser-mentioned aspects, such as impacts on appeals rights and short
National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 Submission 1050
implementation timelines without full co-design, risk unintended harms for high-needs participants.
- Failure to Uphold Human Rights and Co-Design The Bill prioritises fiscal goals over CRPD obligations and genuine co-design with people with disability. Disproportionate impacts on women, children, culturally diverse participants, and those with high 24/7 support needs have not been adequately assessed. Rushed consultation prevents meaningful input.
Conclusion and Recommendations
This Bill threatens the security and dignity of NDIS participants, particularly those with complex, high- needs conditions like mine. It moves away from individualised, rights-based support toward rigid cost control that will cause real harm.
I recommend that the Committee urge the Government to:
• Withdraw the Bill or undertake major amendments removing punitive elements (especially unspent
National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 Submission 1050
fund loss, restricted appeals, and ministerial cut powers).
• Extend consultation and conduct independent human rights and lived-experience impact assessments.
• Ensure all changes uphold choice and control through genuine co-design with participants.
The NDIS must be secured by investing in its original vision — not by restricting access for those who need it most.
Signed,
NDIS Participant