National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 Submission 1193
Concerns for my client who is under a mental health plan
Part 1 - Defining functional capacity
It is great that the NDIS is planning to view each person based on their functional capacity as opposed to their main reason for their NDIS plan. The question I have is whether the NDIS will acknowledge the cumulative eƯect multiple condition can have on a person and their limitations. NDIS does not currently accept people who suƯers from conditions that have so called treatment, such as ADHD, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue. All in which when combined can be quite debilitating.
My client is one such person, who relies on support workers to assist her with her ADLs. I also myself have special needs children where only 1 part of their diagnosis is coverable under NDIS, will NDIS accept that the other component of their diagnosis (ADHD) is a part of them as a whole and not stand alone from the Autism. If the NDIS are changing the rules to be about functional capacity rather than diagnosis, will previously ignored conditions be considered acceptable for the person as showing one’s true capacity?
Part 2 – Limit unscheduled plan assessments
My question is “what is decided to be significant?”
Who decides what is deem significant? A NDIA worker who has never dealt with disability personally, does not understand when someone describes and issue, unless they have lived experience. What is significant to a participant or carer, may not be perceived as by the NDIA worker. So how do you get heard so that you can show the issues? Or will it be a case of instant decline by that worker?
My client was accepted under mental health, but it is due to her other conditions (not accepted by NDIS) that would be shown as impacting her day to day under a functional capacity assessment. Based on this FCA, what is the NDIS going to be looking at when she requests a plan review as her current plan does not fully support her conditions as a whole person?
Part 3 – Strengthen link between an impairment and need for support
If the NDIS will only fund support that is directly from an impairment that the participant met criteria for, where do you get that information if diagnosis is no longer relevant and the functional capacity if preferred. A person with multiple conditions is expected to show a strong link to the support needed and their impairment, so how do they prove this when their criteria for gaining access to NDIS is only part of their overall impairments coverable under NDIS?
Part 4 - Support determinations
Having a blanket rule for all participants is unfair, every person is diƯerent and used their funding in a particular way. I have concerns about my client’s mental health should the minister decide to cap budgets. My client volunteers to help give her purpose, with that she needs me to
National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 Submission 1193
help her to be a part of that community; this comes from the community, social funds. The loss of that budget means that getting help outside of the home disappears and mental health starts to diminish as you can no longer leave your home without help.
Not all participants have the same symptoms, or severity. Others like my client, need the extra help each day and also need the community access to assist with their mental health as its all they have when they are house bound 95% of the time. To decide as a blanket rule, that all participants under mental health plans can only get 5k for community access will cause undue strain on those who rely on that added help and social participation. There will be a huge decline in stability of those participants and their support workers who try their best to help and would have to deal with the stress and fallout from such harsh conditions.
Part 7 – Plan suspensions
This is a very concerning area, people stopped answering the calls of the NDIA due to some underhanded means to “review” participant’s plan with no warning and no support during any consultation process. People talk about being blindsided by NDIA and then getting emails after the call saying we have reviewed your plan followed by cuts. This act alone has caused distrust among the disability community, not to mention the lack of understanding and acknowledgement on the NDIA’s side.
Participants stopped answering unknown calls in case it was the NDIS and warned others to do the same. Perhaps the NDIS need to give participants alternative ways to contact NDIS or confirm why they had a missed call so they can contact when required. As a support worker, I refuse to discuss my client and her needs; I also need to be present during a call just in case as my client has cognitive issues and sometimes can not hold a phone conversation especially when stressed. I don’t doubt that there are many out there that do struggle to be able to discuss their needs in a way that truly shows how they are going, when unprepared and stressed, we have a tendency to forget important things.