National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 Submission 2375
Submission regarding the NDIS Amendment Bill 2026
I am an occupational therapist working with NDIS participants in the community. I work with people who have significant psychosocial disability, autism, trauma-related disability, and complex functional needs.
I am deeply concerned that this Bill is moving too quickly. There is not enough detail, consultation, or understanding of what disability support actually looks like in people’s everyday lives.
The NDIS is not perfect. There are serious issues within the system. It has become wasteful and overbearing. Often, plans are returned where it is clear that reports have not been properly read or understood. Both participants and providers are left guessing what information is required. Communication is poor, decisions are inconsistent, and there is a lack of clear templates or guidance. Efforts to control spending may ironically result in increased costs.
This is why I am deeply concerned about proposals to make significant changes and introduce new assessment processes before addressing the internal problems that already exist. Occupational therapists and other allied health professionals are already trained to assess functional capacity. We are working with participants in their homes and communities. The NDIA should collaborate with this existing workforce instead of creating a new workforce with additional layers of bureaucracy.
In my work, I see what the NDIS means in real life. Before appropriate NDIS supports, I have seen people living in unsafe and unclean homes, isolated and unable to manage appointments or maintain routines, at serious risk of homelessness, hospitalisation and crisis. Many were simply surviving.
With NDIS supports in place, people become more stable. Their homes are safer, they eat more regularly, attend appointments, and accept support workers into their homes. They begin discussing goals and the future, reconnect with services, and experience fewer crises.
This work is often slow, but it is important. We help maintain stability, prevent deterioration, and support people to remain living safely in the community. This can be the difference between staying at home or ending up in hospital, homelessness, or serious self- neglect.
For example, one participant I worked with had been unemployed for several years. With consistent occupational therapy and wraparound support, she returned to work. When she later became unwell and lost her job, the existing supports enabled us to help her stabilise
National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 Submission 2375
and start working towards study and future employment again. Without those supports, her setback could easily have become a much bigger crisis.
I am especially concerned about how this Bill may affect people with psychosocial disability. Many of my clients are already distressed and frightened. They depend on NDIS supports to stay out of hospital and live with dignity.
Many do not answer phone calls due to anxiety, paranoia, trauma, executive dysfunction, overwhelm, or communication barriers. These challenges are part of their disability. They should not risk losing supports because the system cannot communicate with them in a safe and accessible manner.
I am also concerned about how functional capacity is being understood. Functional capacity cannot be accurately assessed without considering a person’s real life. A person’s function depends on their environment, routines, communication needs, support workers, assistive technology, housing, finances, trauma history, and daily context.
Disability cannot be neatly separated from the rest of a person’s life. People are not divided into separate parts. Their disability, health, environment, relationships, finances, and routines all interact. This complexity is precisely why many people need the NDIS in the first place.
As an occupational therapist, I often learn the most important information by seeing a person in their home. The condition of the home can indicate whether the person is eating, cleaning, showering, managing medication, coping emotionally, or becoming unwell. Many people can mask their difficulties during appointments. A brief assessment or phone call does not provide the full picture.
I am also worried about the loss of clinical judgement. Assessing functional capacity is not just a checklist. It requires understanding disability, risk, environment, communication, fluctuating capacity, and real life support needs. Without a proper understanding of psychosocial disability, autism, trauma, masking, or executive dysfunction, assessors will underestimate need.
Nearly all of the participants I work with are already scared. They live with the fear that the supports they rely on every day may be reduced or taken away.
National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 Submission 2375
No one chooses disability. No one chooses to rely on support workers, therapy, equipment, or funded services to get through daily life. Every participant I work with would prefer to be well, independent, working, studying, parenting, contributing, and getting on with their life.
The NDIS should not be viewed only as a cost. It helps fellow Australians live safely, participate in the community, reduce crisis, and contribute where they can. Many disabled people work, pay tax, volunteer, care for others, raise families, and contribute to their communities.
If NDIS supports are reduced, the need will not disappear. It will shift to families, unpaid carers, hospitals, emergency departments, mental health crisis teams, homelessness services, police, and state systems that are already under strain.
I urge the Committee to slow down the Bill. These changes require proper consultation with disabled people, families, allied health support providers, and frontline services.
Functional capacity must remain holistic and based on real life. Psychosocial disability must be properly understood. Allied health evidence must be respected. NDIS supports must continue to protect dignity, safety, participation, and community living.
The NDIS has helped many of my clients move from crisis and survival towards stability, dignity, and participation. Reform should strengthen this, not put it at risk.
Thank you.