Dear Senate Committee.

We request that no personal Identification of our son or our family is shared.

We would like to submit the following concerns regarding the new NDIS Bill.

Part 4 Section 34A - 1 (a) (b)

NDIS plans are assessed and funded based on the reasonable and necessary needs identified in professional reports regarding individuals at the time of their Plan Review. If the Minister is to ensure the safety of participants how is this going to be achieved if the Minister has the ability to reduce funding to “a percentage (lower than 100%) that is the percentage by which a funding component amount for a specified group of supports is reduced”. eg. the Social, Economic, and Community Participation funding may / will have to be replaced by Daily Living support as many participants require support to keep them safe. How will replacing these supports be assessed at the time of the legislation change if there is not a Plan Review to ensure participant safety?

Part 4 Section 34A - 2 (a) (b) (c)

A unilateral percentage reduction in plans for particular funding categories does not enable individual circumstances to be considered and does not consider the impact on NDIS participants or their support networks.

Part 4 Section 34A - 3

It is not possible to assess the impact of “reducing funding for groups of supports” in “regard to the safety of participants” unless each individual circumstance is reviewed to ensure participants safety. The Social, Economic, and Community Participation funding may / will have to be replaced by Daily Living support as many participants require this support for safety. How will replacing these supports be assessed to ensure participant safety if the Minister has the power to make a unilateral determination?

Part 4 Section 34A - 5 (a) (b)

Participants and their support networks have taken many years to build supports that meet the needs of the participant. If the Minister unilaterally has the power to reduce supports in a particular category, this could severely disrupt the established support systems. For example Minister Butler’s announcement of a 30% reduction to Social, Economic and Community Participation.

Personal Impact

Our son works 4 days per week at an NDIS registered Australian Disability Enterprise (7:30 a.m.–3:00 p.m.) and studies 1 day per week at an NDIS-registered Employment and Training Organisation (9.00am-3.00pm). Our son does not have the capacity to work in Open Employment without support due to a combination of Autism, Intellectual (IQ 50-60), Communication, Physical, Epilepsy (requiring temperatures of 26 degrees or less) and Behavioural Impairments. He contributes to society to the best of his ability with a combination of 1:1 , 1:2 and 1:3 supports based on needs assessed by medical professionals, allied health professionals, and his service providers. The support for these services comes from Social, Economic and Community Participation. Open Employers will not consider employing our son. His Training organisation has been trialling a support model where one support person supports 2 -3 participants in Open Employment. Their trials have been well received by employers; however, finding these opportunities is very difficult and the number of available positions is limited compared to the number of participants seeking them. These opportunities do not always translate to permanent employment. Our son has been fortunate to receive 6 weeks of employment at a full award wage one day per week in 2024 with a 1:2 support ratio and a second opportunity of 8 weeks of employment at a full award wage one day per week in 2025 with a 1:2 support ratio.

The positive benefits from our son’s NDIS supports have been as follows:

• his supported wage is 60% of an award wage (independently assessed by the Department of Social Services - National Panel of Assessors)
• he is supported 30 hours per week in employment
• he is supported 6 hours per week in training
• he has become a Tax Payer in the last 2 years (minimal tax but a significant achievement)
• his Disability Support Pension is reduced based on his income

• his mental well being is supported as a participant of society
• his providers are NDIS Registered providers so the government has clear oversight of how his funding is spent

The Australian Disability Enterprise supports are funded under the following NDIS Line items within the Core Funding Category of Social, Economic and Community Participation, under Supports in Employment.

• 04_599_0133_5_1
• 04_801_0133_5_1

Our son’s NDIS registered Employment and Training Organisation charges for his supports under the Core Funding Category of Social, Economic and Community Participation, under Commumunity Participation

• 04_599_0133_5_1
• 04_102_0136_6_1

If Minister Butler implements a 30% cut to Social, Economic and Community Participation, our son will likely lose all the gains he has achieved. Furthermore, the NDIS will be no better off financially as he will still require similar funding under Daily Living, resulting in a lower quality of life and a greater cost to the community.

Minister Mark Butler announced a $200 million Inclusive Communities Fund to help mainstream and disability community organisations rebuild capability and genuine community participation activities.

Why would Minister Butler and the NDIS reduce the current funding for our son’s Supports in Employment and Training which provide genuine community participation? These are both funded under Social, Economic and Community Participation which is slated for a 30% cut. It would be far better to look at these NDIS registered providers, which are community organisations already providing genuine community participation activities. If support for these organisations were continued, many similar organisations would not have closed down over recent years and the Minister would not need to spend $200 million on the Inclusive Communities Fund to help mainstream and disability community organisations rebuild capability and genuine community participation activities.

Recommendation

Supports funded under the following codes should be removed from the Social, Economic and Community Participation category and placed into a separate NDIS category:

Core Funding Category of Economic Participation, under Supports in Employment and Training.

• 04_599_0133_5_1

• 04_801_0133_5_1

Expand Category 04_801_0133_5_1 Supports in Employment to 04_801_0133_5_1 Supports in Employment and Training

This could be either a general category of Supports in Employment and Training or open only to NDIS Registered Providers if the government requires more oversight.

We are happy to provide further information if you contact us.

Kind Regards