Submission 3014 — Name Withheld — NDIS Future Generations Bill

Submission to the Senate Committee

Inquiry into the Proposed Reforms to the National

Disability Insurance Scheme

Submitted by:

1. Introduction My name is . I am an National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) participant, a tetraplegic wheelchair user, and a person living with progressive multiple sclerosis. I have been a participant in the NDIS since 2017.

I work full-time as a Science Manager for an Australian Government agency. The NDIS has played a vital role in enabling me to maintain my independence, participate fully in my community, and continue working in a professional leadership role. The supports I receive are not simply services—they are the foundation that allows me to live a full, productive and meaningful life.

I am concerned that the proposed changes to the NDIS may reduce the supports available to people with significant physical disabilities and, in doing so, diminish our independence, quality of life, and capacity to contribute to society. While I recognise the importance of ensuring the long-term sustainability of the Scheme, I believe this should not come at the expense of participants whose supports are essential to living ordinary lives and participating in work, family, and community life.

I welcome the opportunity to provide this submission to the Senate Committee. My submission is based on my lived experience as a person with a significant physical disability and reflects both the benefits that the NDIS has made possible and the concerns I have about the potential impacts of the proposed reforms.

2. Overall Position I support the objective of ensuring that the NDIS remains financially sustainable and continues to deliver value for money. As both an NDIS participant and a taxpayer, I recognise the importance of maintaining public confidence in the Scheme and ensuring that funding is directed to people who genuinely require support.

I also support reforms that strengthen the integrity of the NDIS by reducing fraud, improving accountability, and ensuring greater consistency in decision-making.

However, I am concerned that some of the proposed reforms may unintentionally reduce the flexibility, choice and individualised supports that have made the NDIS so successful. People with significant and progressive disabilities often have complex and changing support needs that cannot always be accommodated through standardised processes or rigid funding arrangements.

Throughout this submission, I encourage the Committee to consider the NDIS not simply as a government expenditure, but as an investment in people. Appropriate

disability supports enable participants to work, study, volunteer, care for their families and contribute to their communities. These outcomes provide significant social and economic returns that extend far beyond the cost of the supports themselves.

3. Personal Experience I live with progressive multiple sclerosis and am now tetraplegic. I have no functional use of my legs and use of only one arm. As a result, I require significant support to undertake everyday activities, maintain my independence, and continue working in a full-time professional role.

The NDIS has been life-changing. It has enabled me to maintain my quality of life, preserve my independence, continue contributing to society through full-time employment, and significantly reduce the burden of care placed on my family and friends.

Before the NDIS was introduced, I struggled to access any meaningful government funding for disability supports. I was forced to pay for support workers from my own income. As a result, much of the salary I earned from working full-time was spent on essential care, leaving me able to afford only a minimal level of support.

Because I could not access sufficient formal supports, I relied heavily on my informal support network, particularly my husband and my elderly parents. The physical and emotional demands of providing this level of care had profound consequences for my family. My husband experienced a serious mental health crisis and required involuntary hospitalisation in a mental health facility. At the same time, my elderly parents were unable to enjoy the retirement they had planned because they spent many hours each day providing care and support. The ongoing demands placed considerable strain on both their physical health and emotional wellbeing.

The introduction of the NDIS fundamentally changed my circumstances. With access to appropriate funding for disability support workers, the burden on my husband and parents was significantly reduced. I was able to continue living independently in my own home, rather than relying almost entirely on family members to meet my daily support needs.

The NDIS has also enabled me to remain in full-time employment as a Science Manager with an Australian Government agency. Instead of spending most of my income on essential care, I have been able to build and sustain a professional career, contribute my skills and expertise to public service, pay income tax, and participate fully in the economy and my community.

My experience demonstrates that the NDIS should not be viewed solely as an expenditure, but as an investment that delivers substantial returns for individuals, families and the broader Australian community. The supports I receive enable me to

remain employed, reducing my reliance on income support while allowing me to continue contributing through taxation and productive employment. They have also reduced the need for unpaid caring by my husband and elderly parents, enabling them to lead healthier and more independent lives. Without these supports, the costs to the health system, mental health services, carers, and potentially the aged care system would almost certainly have been significantly higher.

The benefits of the NDIS extend well beyond financial outcomes. The Scheme has enabled me to retain my independence, maintain social connections, contribute to my workplace, and live with dignity and purpose. These outcomes reflect the original vision of the NDIS—to empower people with disability to participate as equal members of Australian society.

I am deeply grateful for the support I have received through the NDIS. My experience illustrates that when participants receive the supports they genuinely need, the benefits extend far beyond the individual. Families are better supported, employers retain experienced and skilled workers, governments benefit from increased workforce participation and tax revenue, and communities become more inclusive. In this way, the NDIS represents not only an investment in people with disability, but an investment in Australia’s social and economic future.

4. Comments on Specific Proposed Changes 4.1 Sustainability of the NDIS

The long-term sustainability of the NDIS is essential, but sustainability should be measured not only by reducing expenditure within the Scheme but also by recognising the broader economic and social returns generated by enabling people with disability to participate in work and community life.

My own experience demonstrates this return on investment. The supports I receive enable me to remain in full-time employment, contribute through taxation, and reduce the caring burden on my family. These outcomes generate benefits that extend well beyond the NDIS itself.

Recommendation 1: Ensure that measures of NDIS sustainability consider workforce participation, reduced reliance on health and aged care services, and the wellbeing of families and carers alongside Scheme expenditure.

4.2 Reduced Flexibility in Participant Budgets

Living with a progressive condition means my support needs change over time. Flexibility within my NDIS plan allows me to adapt to these changes without unnecessary delays or administrative burden.

Reducing flexibility may result in participants being unable to respond to changing circumstances and may ultimately reduce the effectiveness of the supports they receive.

Recommendation 2: Maintain sufficient flexibility within participant budgets to allow participants to respond to changing circumstances without frequent plan reviews.

4.3 Defining NDIS Supports

While I support greater clarity regarding the responsibilities of the NDIS, legislative definitions and support lists should not become so prescriptive that they prevent decision-makers from considering individual circumstances.

Recommendation 3: Retain sufficient discretion within the legislation to ensure decisions remain individualised and based on functional need.

4.4 Standardised Needs Assessments

Consistency is important, but no assessment tool can fully capture the lived experience of people with complex disabilities. Clinical evidence and participant experience should remain central to funding decisions.

Recommendation 4: Ensure standardised assessments are supported by clinical evidence and participant lived experience.

4.5 Fraud Prevention and Scheme Integrity

I strongly support measures to prevent fraud, misuse of NDIS funding and poor provider practices. Protecting the integrity of the Scheme is essential to maintaining public confidence and ensuring that funding is directed to participants who genuinely require support.

As an NDIS participant since 2017, I have observed that, particularly in the early years of the Scheme, there were relatively few safeguards to verify how participant funding was being spent. In my experience, participants could often claim reimbursement without being required to provide invoices or other supporting documentation at the time of payment. This created opportunities for funds to be used inappropriately and relied heavily on participants acting honestly.

Similarly, I have experienced very limited auditing of participant claims. In the years that I have participated in the NDIS, I have only been subject to one audit, and that audit examined only a single transaction. While I appreciate that most participants use their funding appropriately, stronger auditing processes and targeted compliance activities could help identify inappropriate claims and improve confidence that Scheme funding is being used for its intended purpose.

I also believe there should be stronger oversight of providers. While many registered providers deliver high-quality services, strengthening compliance activities and auditing providers where there are indicators of higher risk could deliver significant savings while improving participant safety and service quality.

Independent support workers play an important role in providing choice and flexibility. However, I believe there should be appropriate safeguards to ensure that all workers delivering NDIS-funded supports, regardless of their employment model, meet consistent standards of quality, accountability and participant safety.

Strengthening auditing, provider oversight and verification processes could achieve significant savings without reducing essential supports.

Recommendation 5: Strengthen fraud prevention through increased risk-based auditing, enhanced provider oversight, improved verification of expenditure and consistent quality and accountability requirements for all NDIS-funded support workers.

4.6 Foundational Supports

I support improving disability supports outside the NDIS, provided these complement rather than replace individualised NDIS supports for people with significant disabilities.

Recommendation 6: Ensure foundational supports are adequately funded and complement, rather than replace, individualised NDIS supports.

4.7 Preserving Choice, Control and Independence

Choice and control have been central to the success of the NDIS. They have enabled me to maintain my independence, continue working full-time and live with dignity.

The NDIS should continue to focus on enabling people with disability to participate in society, recognising that these outcomes benefit not only participants but also employers, families, governments and the wider community.

Recommendation 7: Preserve participant choice and control as a core principle of the NDIS and ensure reforms continue to promote independence, workforce participation and social inclusion.

5. Summary of Recommendations

6. Recognise the broader return on investment of the NDIS when assessing its sustainability.

7. Preserve flexibility within participant budgets.

8. Maintain individualised decision-making when defining NDIS supports.

4. Ensure standardised assessments are balanced by clinical evidence and lived experience.

5. Strengthen Scheme integrity through targeted, risk-based compliance, provider oversight and auditing.

6. Ensure foundational supports complement, rather than replace, individualised NDIS supports.

7. Preserve participant choice, control, flexibility and independence as the guiding principles of the NDIS.

8. Conclusion The NDIS has transformed my life. It has enabled me to live independently, maintain my dignity, continue working full-time, contribute to my community, and reduce the significant caring responsibilities previously placed on my husband and elderly parents. The supports I receive are not a luxury—they are the foundation that allows me to participate in Australian society on an equal basis with others.

I support reforms that strengthen the integrity and long-term sustainability of the NDIS. However, I urge the Committee to ensure that these reforms do not unintentionally reduce the flexibility, choice and individualised supports that have been central to the Scheme’s success.

The NDIS should not be judged solely on what it costs. It should also be judged on what it enables. My own experience demonstrates that investing in appropriate disability supports enables people to remain employed, contribute to the economy, reduce pressure on other government services and live with dignity and independence.

As the Committee considers the proposed reforms, I encourage it to preserve the principles that have made the NDIS such a success: participant choice and control, individualised supports, flexibility, and a focus on enabling people with disability to achieve their goals. These principles are not only fundamental to the lives of participants—they are essential to ensuring that the NDIS continues to deliver lasting value to the Australian community.

Thank you for the opportunity to provide this submission. I hope my lived experience assists the Committee in understanding the practical impact of the proposed reforms and demonstrates the significant social and economic return that the NDIS provides when it enables people with disability to participate fully in Australian society.