National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026
Submission 2719
Submission: NDIS Future Generations Bill 2026
I am writing as the business manager of a small Occupational Therapist (OT) practice. We recently closed due to the proposed changes in the NDIS Future Generations Bill 2026 and the process leading up to it. In short, we closed the business because of: a public rhetoric that was often derogatory of allied health professionals, constant downward pressure on the standard rates, the psychological impact of watching the harm caused by sudden, and seemingly arbitrary, cost-cutting of people’s plans and, lastly, the cost of adapting to constant changes in processes and procedures.
The political rhetoric surrounding the role of allied health professionals in recent years has taken a generally disparaging tone. Granted, rorts have certainly occurred and some allied health professionals have been part of this. Sadly, however, the broad tone of the political discourse seems to cast the whole profession in a bad light. Yes, there have been clarifications that “the majority of the profession are acting in good faith†but these are generally made afterwards. If you throw enough mud, some sticks. This discourse was very discouraging to those OTs who actually do the right thing.
Contrary to popular belief, being an OT is not a well-remunerated profession. Many private OTs could earn more as an APS 5 or APS 6 than as sole traders. Many do it out of a sense of care for those with a disability. While the billable hours rate for OT looks good, there are many non-billable hours in the average OT’s day. OT’s are surely one of the few groups of workers who have not had a pay rise for 6 years. To add insult to injury, the government recently halved the OT travel rate as petrol costs soared.
Another reason the practice closed was the increasing psychological injury experienced by our therapist due to the sudden wave of rejections of functional capacity assessment (FCA) reports and the haphazard cutting of people’s plans. We, and a cohort of experienced therapists, saw the rejection rate for FCAs skyrocket from early 2025. A similar thing happened with plans – big cuts that seemed to take little account of the actual situation. To make matters worse, the rejection of reports seemed to require no specific issues to be identified. How is this a fair or efficient process? How can the therapist target the issues if they are not adequately identified?
The real anguish for our OT, however, was in seeing the impact that these rejections were having on participants, or people applying for the NDIS. This sudden reversal of approach was causing major distress to participants and denying significantly disabled people the chance to receive NDIS support. For our therapist, it became increasingly difficult psychologically as the degree of impact on participants climbed despite her best efforts in submitting highly substantiated and closely argued reports. This psychological impact was a major factor in closing our business. If the NDIS future Generations Bill 2026 continues unchanged, then I expect many other OTs will leave the profession. The government needs to create a fair, transparent and contestable process for its financial
National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026
Submission 2719
decisions. Included in this needs to be a requirement for any rejection of an FCA or cuts in a plan to give specific reasons for the decision and a process whereby the participant or therapist can give additional information. There needs to be good-faith processes to achieve a good outcome, not merely cost-cutting. The current Bill grants too much power to NDIS administrators.
Lastly, the constant churn around NDIS requirements and processes is creating a substantial cost for business owners. There is the cost of attending training courses to understand the plethora of changes, and this is on top of forgoing earnings while training. Then there is the cost of changing business documents and adjusting business processes. It felt like these changes were non-stop. Small businesses face enough difficulties without the constant friction and distraction of endless change.