NDIA Accountability Project

Impact of community access funding cuts on family and brother with intellectual disability

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

Submission 3669

NDIS Amendment Bill – Social & Community Access Cuts

I am 17, and I’m the younger brother of a 21 year old who has an intellectual disability. My brother can’t communicate very well and isn’t safe to be left alone at all. I want to explain what these cuts to community access funding will actually mean for him — and for us.

At 17, I can go to school, train at the gym, work, see friends, and plan my future. is 21 and can’t do any of that without support. The only thing he can do without support is sit on his iPad at home, and even then someone has to be around to make sure he’s safe.

When he has community access funding, he can get out of the house, go to the gym, do his volunteering, do activities he enjoys, and feel like part of the world. If the funding is cut, he is stuck at home. Completely. His whole life shrinks to four walls.

It’s hard watching your older brother have less freedom than you do.

When ’s support was reduced in his most recent plan:

  • he became anxious and frustrated
  • he lost confidence
  • he stopped doing things he loved
  • our whole house became stressed
  • he became way more dependent on mum

And my mum is available to work less because she literally cannot leave him alone. She is exhausted. I see it every day.

I help where I can, but I’m still in school and doing my HSC. I can’t be the adult in the house. Dad is around but works massive hours in his hospitality job just to pay the rent and feed us. When the NDIS cuts support, it doesn’t just affect — it affects all of us. I worry about my mum burning out. I worry about what happens to if she can’t keep going.

No teenager should have to think about that.

Please don’t take away the only support that lets my brother have a life worth living. Community access isn’t optional for him — it’s essential. It’s what keeps him connected, active, and safe. It gives him purpose. And it’s what keeps our family functioning.

   deserves the same chances in life that I have. Please do not target social and community

access funding to save the NDIS money. It matters more than you realise.

              27.5.2026