NDIA Accountability Project

This project is in DRAFT

Impact of NDIS changes on autistic son and family carer (Family or carer experience)

National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026

Submission 1553

Please consider the following when making a decision about the harsh changes to the NDIS.

My brother was a child of the 1960s and through the 1970s. He would have been diagnosed with a mental health illness plus other undiagnosed challenges if my parents had been able to access something like the NDIS.

Instead, to support my brother, they used their own methods with occasional access to psychologists/psychiatrists paid for by them. He was hospitalised periodically for lengthy periods of time.

With only limited support and interventions my brother ended up on a disability pension and homeless.

I have a friend who has a 22-year-old son who has a diagnosis of autism as well as mental health challenges. She wants to ensure his safety and wellbeing and has given up full-time work to care for her son. She has, up until now, felt supported by the current level of NDIS her son gets. It enables her, his father and his sister to reset and gives them strength to continue caring for their son and brother.

My friend’s worries about the proposed changes to the NDIS are as follows:

  1. That the Minister will have the power to cut a participant’s plans at will.
  2. That the 30% proposed cuts to social and community supports will shift more responsibilities and work back to the families.
  3. That the proposed cuts will make her son’s life more isolated, smaller and less fulfilling.
  4. That there has not been proper consultation about the proposed changes with NDIS participants, carers and service providers.
  5. That the proposed changes will undermine the provision of early intervention and thus end up costing the government more in the longer term with much greater demands on hospitals, mental health services and perhaps juvenile justice and corrections as well. Further, early intervention as provided by the NDIS now is a cost-saving expense in the long term.

Without a doubt the NDIS does need to be tweaked and overseen by the right people in order to prevent the many who have taken financial advantage of it. But this should not be at a cost to the legitimate participants of the NDIS.