National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 Submission 1177
I am a disability sector worker. I am writing this submission because I do not support the NDIS cuts. I have serious concerns about what this may mean for the disabled participants I work with and the disabled friends in my life.
In my professional experience, disabled people already struggle greatly with both the current administrative requirements and the cost of support on the NDIS. It is often difficult to communicate with the NDIS and it takes a long time to get any results. The sector is already overburdened and fraught with communication issues.
It is extremely common for participants in our service to have to terminate/pause their participation due to funding issues.This limits their ability to participate in society and seek improvement with support they need. Many of the participants I work with struggle to read and write. It is unfair to put more administrative restrictions on them, with less time and more scrutiny on whether their disability is “permanent” enough. Even if one seems “healed” on the surface, it may take them much longer to do things unsupported.
It is unreasonable to run on a more standardised decision-making process when each person will be affected differently by their disability. One person’s autism may impact their ability to speak; another’s may make them extremely verbose. It’s difficult to use the same decision making process for both!
In the sector we are always repeating to each other: “it is about the individual’s choice and control.” This means that each individual will have different needs and require personalised support. Even as abled people, we have our differences in the way we want to be supported; I like having a set schedule at work, but there are plenty of people who love their flexible work hours. Disabled people deserve to have their differences supported and personalised as well. I ask that the committee consider my experience when reviewing this Bill.