National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 Submission 1127
Dear Committee Secretariat,
RE: Submission on the National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026
Please accept this email as my formal submission to the Senate Community Affairs Legislation Committee regarding the proposed Securing the NDIS for Future Generations Bill 2026.
My name is Nancy Sue, and I am a practicing Occupational Therapist (OT) with 5 years of experience working directly alongside disabled Australians. In my daily clinical practice, I assess functional capacity, prescribe vital assistive technologies, and design interventions that allow vulnerable individuals to live with dignity and independence.
I am writing to express my deep professional and ethical concerns regarding the fundamental structural changes proposed in this Bill. While I understand the intent to ensure the Scheme’s long-term sustainability, I believe the mechanisms chosen will cause severe, irreversible harm to vulnerable disabled Australians. Furthermore, it will trigger a catastrophic domino effect across our broader social, economic, and institutional systems.
- Tightening Access and Restricting Plan Flexibility
As an allied health professional, I am deeply concerned that the Bill tightens access criteria by shifting definitions of functional capacity in a way that risks locking out those with complex, fluctuating, or psychosocial conditions.
Furthermore, the new restrictions on when plans can be reassessed - limiting them strictly to narrow, “significant and ongoing” changes - fundamentally misunderstands disability. Human lives do not change on a rigid legislative schedule. Restricting plan flexibility and ending the automatic rollover of unspent funds will trap participants in unsafe, under- funded plans, escalating their risks of injury, institutionalisation, or acute health crises.
- Systematic Funding Reductions Across Groups of Supports
The creation of new legislative mechanisms allowing the Government to reduce funding across entire cohorts or “groups of supports” is a dangerous departure from the individualised, person-centred core of the NDIS.
Of gravest concern are the immediate cuts slated for 1 October 2026, specifically:
The 10 per cent reduction to capacity building daily activity supports, and
The 50 per cent reduction to social, civic, and community participation supports.
As an OT, I know that capacity building and community participation are not optional luxury items; they are the literal scaffolding of independence. Cutting capacity building
National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 Submission 1127
means funding fewer interventions that teach a young person how to look after themselves or manage daily tasks. Halving community access funds will actively isolate individuals, exacerbating mental health deterioration and causing severe functional regression.
- Automated Decision-Making and the Erosion of Appeal Rights via the ART
I am deeply alarmed by provisions within the Bill that pave the way for automated decision-making. Utilising rigid algorithms, data-matching models, or standardised digital tools to generate overall budget packages strips away the nuance required to understand complex disabilities. Human lives and functional capacities cannot be accurately distilled into a machine-learning formula. This is particularly dangerous when assessments are conducted by NDIA staff who lack allied health backgrounds.
Compounding this danger is the severely curtailed right of review through the Administrative Review Tribunal (ART). Under the proposed framework, the ART’s capacity to conduct a true merits review is fundamentally compromised; rather than evaluating the actual real-world needs of the participant or considering fresh clinical evidence, the tribunal is restricted merely to checking whether the NDIA correctly applied its own automated budget rules and assessment tools. Denying vulnerable participants a meaningful, independent avenue to appeal a flawed, machine-generated budget is a profound breach of procedural fairness.
- The Downstream Impact on Mainstream Systems
The NDIS does not exist in a vacuum. Artificially capping and slashing these supports will not save public funds; it will merely shift a massive financial and operational burden onto already fracturing mainstream services:
Women and Informal Caregivers: When formal social and daily living supports are stripped away, the physical, mental, and economic burden will disproportionately fall back onto informal carers—predominantly women. This will force women out of the workforce, damage family stability, and drive up rates of carer burnout.
The Healthcare System: Stripping away preventative capacity-building care will result in an influx of preventable injuries, falls, and mental health crises, leading directly to increased presentations at already overwhelmed hospital emergency departments.
Schools and Education: Children deprived of early intervention or functional daily supports will struggle to engage in standard educational settings, placing immense pressure on educators and school funding systems.
National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 Submission 1127
Justice Departments: Isolation and a lack of structured, community-based daily support are major risk factors for vulnerable individuals intersecting with the justice system.
Conclusion and Recommendations
The proposed Bill risks treating the NDIS purely as a line item on a balance sheet, rather than a vital social infrastructure that keeps Australians safe. The 1 October 2026 cuts to capacity building and social participation are blunt instruments that will decimate participant independence and inevitably cost the taxpayer more through mainstream systemic strain.
I urge the Committee to:
-
Reject or pause the implementation of the 10% and 50% funding resets scheduled for October 2026 until a rigorous, independent allied health impact assessment is conducted.
-
Ensure that plan reassessment criteria remain flexible enough to respond organically to a participant’s changing life circumstances.
-
Protect individualised funding allocations rather than introducing sweeping, group-wide funding reduction mechanisms.
-
Ensure robust human oversight and full appeal rights, mandating that any automated budget tools serve strictly as non-binding decision support, and preserving the full jurisdiction of the Administrative Review Tribunal (ART) to conduct comprehensive merits reviews based on individual clinical evidence.
Thank you for considering the perspective of frontline allied health professionals who see the real-world value of a fully functional NDIS every single day.
If you have any questions, please let me know.
Kind Regards,
Nancy Sue Master of Occupational Therapy Doctor of Philosophy - PhD BMedSci (Hons)
Occupational Therapist and Team Leader Sydney, NSW
National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 Submission 1127
My normal working hours may differ to yours, and you may be receiving this outside of your normal working hours. There is no need for you to read or respond to this email outside of your normal working hours.
M: 0429 413 385 W: www.verveot.com.au
To make a new referral - www.verveot.com.au/make-a-referral
This email including any attachments may contain confidential and privileged information, and are intended solely for the named addressee. If you are not the intended addressee, please promptly inform the sender and/or us at Verve OT and then delete this email. Any privilege and/or confidentiality is not waived and any storage, use or reproduction is strictly prohibited. All personal information in this email must be handled in accordance with the relevant privacy laws in Australia. We appreciate your cooperation.
I’m using Inbox When Ready to protect my focus.