Submission 2942 — Name Withheld — NDIS Future Generations Bill

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

Submission 2942

Dear Committee,

I wish to make a submission to the Committee considering the approval of the new National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026.

My name is             and I live at                   in Brisbane. I have been a NDIS participant

since the rollout of the scheme to Queensland in 2018.

I have Multiple Sclerosis, which I have suffered from since I was diagnosed with it in 2001. Since that time, my abilities to perform some basic tasks have decreased as this is a degenerative neurological illness. I often can’t do some activities like travelling independently as I need some physical support to do them.

I self-manage my own NDIS funding in hiring and letting go people who support me, paying invoices through an account dedicated solely for this funding, uploading invoices and receipts to the website to request reimbursement of the funds that I have used in the website and receiving reimbursement. Some of my supports come from NDIS registered organisations and some don’t. My understanding from what I have read about this Bill is that all providers will need to be registered. That is a problem as far as I am concerned. It can be very challenging to find people who are cleaners or lawnmower people who are registered. Believe me, I’ve tried. Personally, I have found it quite impossible, and so instead I have got people who just have small businesses and happen to charge below the capped rate for the services.

Much of the time, I have found that the services that I hire that are not registered are more effective and frankly cheaper than the registered services. Unlike a service that you pay for out of your own money, registered services don’t send you a quote before you hire them. Instead, they always charge the exact capped price per unit that they see on the NDIA’s price guide once they know that you are a NDIS participant. I find that it is over-charging for certain types of services.

Instead, I have found providers that, while they may not be registered with the scheme, are very cost effective as they genuinely compete against others on the market and are picked individually by me to provide a service. They are picked because I am aware of the price caps and I ensure any workers I hire stay under the capped prices. They don’t know I’ve got a disability before I hire them and, in my opinion, they don’t need to know. As a self-managed participant, I ask that you protect the right of self-managed participants to hire people that they know can do the job at the right price.

I am also very concerned that there will be a serious cut to the Social and Community Participation funding of 50%. That is a truly cruel blow to a person such as myself as a single woman living alone, and it is likely to seriously isolate and confine us to our own homes. Just imagine if you were isolated and not allowed to go out of your house at all ever, even to do something as simple as going to have a coffee with a friend at a local coffee shop. Can you imagine how heart-rending and depressing that is? It would be like the deep of the pandemic in 2020 when we were isolating, but instead of being let out into the general community after 2 weeks, there will be no end to the isolation and no joy to be had in socialising with others. You may think that is over-stating things, but trust me, I am not exaggerating. I respectfully ask that you stop or at the very least decrease the depth of this cost cutting.