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

Submission 2227

Regarding the Destructive Impact of Current NDIA Reassessment Processes on Vulnerable Participants

Please find below a detailed submission regarding the profound and destructive impact that the current National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) proposed new NDIA assessment frameworks will have on the physical, cognitive, and psychosocial health of National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) participants.

As an elected representative, it is vital to understand how these proposed bureaucratic framework changes will translate into severe, real-world distress for vulnerable NDIS participants and with these proposed changes risk causing irreparable harm to the very people the NDIS was designed to protect.

Feedback on the Impact of the New NDIS Reassessment Process

1. Disregard for Comprehensive Medical Evidence

• Existing Documentation is Sufficient: Participants already provide comprehensive, professional medical and specialist documentation. Covered under Medicare, these reports conclusively prove permanent, lifelong, and significant disabilities that severely limit major life activities.
• Evidence Ignored: The NDIA frequently disregards these evidence-based reports from qualified professionals, choosing instead to rely on rigid, automated “robo-planning” and standardised lists. This shift prioritises bureaucratic cost-cutting over individual care, often leading to funding cuts for essential therapies and forcing people into unsafe living situations.

2. The Severe Toll of the I-CAN v6 Assessment Process

• Intensive and Exhausting Questioning: The new I-CAN Support Needs Assessment (v6) introduces long, repetitive interviews lasting three hours or longer. Forcing a participant to endure hours of ongoing questioning across 6 to 12 domains places an immense cognitive and emotional load on them.
• Dehumanising and Traumatic Experience: For many, this process feels less like a supportive planning session and more like a high-pressure interrogation. Participants are forced to justify their most basic human needs from scratch, turning the process into a traumatic “fight” to prove their disability.
• Lack of Systemic Empathy: Many planners lack a fundamental understanding of disability or lived experience, leading to insensitive interactions that create an impersonal, claustrophobic, and overwhelming environment.
• Lack of Specialised Training for Assessors: The individuals conducting these complex three-hour assessments are frequently generalist public servants or contracted workers rather than specialists trained in complex trauma, intellectual disability, or neurodivergence. Consequently, they often fail to recognise when a participant is dissociating, shutting down, or experiencing severe distress.

3. Vulnerability and Cognitive Barriers During Interviews

• Cognitive and Communication Fatigue: Many NDIS participants experience slow processing speeds or cognitive fatigue. Expecting them to answer rapid, consecutive questions for hours is unrealistic and distressing.
• Impact of Medications and Illness: Participants are often managing significant physical illness and taking strong medications that prevent 100% clear thinking, making it incredibly difficult to navigate a high-pressure interview.

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

Submission 2227

• Limitations of Support Persons: While participants may have a support person or advocate present, that person cannot fully know every detail of the participant’s daily life, internal struggles, or physical health, meaning they cannot safely answer on the participant’s behalf.

• The Flaw of “Point-in-Time” Functional Assessments: A single three-hour interview only captures how a participant functions at that exact moment. For individuals with fluctuating conditions, psychosocial disabilities, or chronic fatigue, they may use temporary “masking” strategies just to survive the meeting. The assessment completely fails to account for the inevitable physical and mental “crash” that occurs in the days following the interview.

4. Psychological Harm, Carer Burden, and Broken Promises

• Exacerbation of Health Conditions: The intense emotional stress and pressure of these reviews trigger severe anxiety, fatigue, and trauma. This is particularly destructive for individuals with invisible or psychosocial disabilities, where the stress can cause aggression or severe emotional collapse.

• A Continuous Cycle of Distress: Knowing that this gruelling process must be repeated every two to five years creates a cycle of ongoing dread and permanent instability.

• The Burden on Support Networks: When NDIS funding is cut or the assessment process causes a mental health crisis, the heavy emotional and physical burden falls back onto family members and informal carers, leading to severe carer burnout and household strain.

• Contradiction of the Investment Model: The NDIS was built as an insurance model designed to invest in early intervention and proactive therapies to reduce long-term dependency. Stripping these supports away forces participants into medical crises, which ultimately costs the government significantly more in emergency hospitalizations and crisis care.

Conclusion & Call to Action

The NDIS was originally designed to support people with disabilities and provide peace of mind. Instead, The current focus on rigid savings is causing severe psychological distress, trauma, and anxiety—creating a high-pressure environment so severe that it actively endangers the mental health and lives of vulnerable participants.

Thank you for your time, your empathy, and your urgent attention to this systemic crisis. I look forward to hearing how your office intends to address these critical issues and protect the well-being of NDIS participants.

Acknowledgment:

All core arguments, data verification, and final edits were conducted by the author.

The author acknowledges the use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools in organizing the structure and refining the prose of this document.