Inquiry: The National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment

(Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026.

Dear Sir/Madam

         NDIS funding cuts

This letter explains why our daughter’s life will be diminished if she has a cut in her NDIS support funding.

Our daughter, , now 49, is a person with Down Syndrome. She is unique in that she is the first person with Downs in Australia to have graduated from university with a degree in 2021. Since then, she is now employed in a casual position as a Community Researcher at Flinders University and is also employed to work in peer groups supporting other people with an Intellectual disability, as well as having a busy life in the theatre.

She has lived in her own unit next door to us, for the past 17 years.

   has had a rich life, but we have needed to overcome many

trials to break down the resistance to her moving ahead. Far too many closed doors which needed to be opened.

    ’s life has now settled into one of work, commitment to

community, drama, and social groups, the only place, where she meets her friends.

For all her life has been heavily supported by her parents, and the support she has received from various agencies, and now from the NDIS. This has enabled her to grow and develop. However, although

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has achieved skills in many areas, in her life, she still has Down Syndrome which will remain with her for ever. She therefore suffers from many aspects relating to this syndrome. The main one for being a limited ‘Executive Function’, as well as her growing ageing issues. These cause a decrease in her abilities to look after herself, or plan and organise her life ,rather than improvement, as expected by many.

relies totally on outside support to survive, and to maintain a safe and full life.

Her father, now 86 and me now 93 are both finding it so much more difficult to maintain the care and support we can offer to our daughter, and as we are her only relative’s, we do need to rely on outside support to keep her safe and to maintain a good life.

The support has been receiving from NDIS over the last years has enabled us to pass on many of the tasks, we undertake to maintain her life to support workers. But there are still many areas which are not covered by support staff. These areas are possibly the most personal ones for her.

Plans we have been working towards to safely support , have now been compromised by the reduction in ’s funding from NDIS. Being the age, we are and the health issues we both have, we, her parents’, desperately need to have this support in place before she is left on her own. This not too many years ahead.

We have never misused the funding has been granted through the NDIS scheme and indeed have always been grateful and comforted by the fact that it is the very ‘insurance’ that we so need for our daughter.

There have been several professional assessments that has been required to undertake for her NDIS plan. All this relevant information has also confirmed her ongoing need for this support. However, this information seems not to have been considered during the recent assessment of her needs. Our

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daughter’s safety and future good life both depend on her being fully supported by people who know her and care for her the way we have done. We now must look to the NDIS for this ongoing support.

Yours sincerely