To the Senate Committee,

Re: Inquiry into the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) Amendment Bill 2026

I am writing to express my deep concern regarding the proposed changes to the NDIS, specifically the reduction of supports such as Assistance with Social and Community Participation and any measures that may result in people with significant disabilities being removed from the Scheme.

I am the primary carer for multiple adult children with disabilities, ranging in age from 18 to 28 years old. Despite being adults, my children require substantial support in almost every aspect of daily life. They cannot safely leave the house independently and require either support workers or myself to accompany them to attend appointments, therapies, community activities, shopping, and other essential tasks.

My children require assistance with cleaning, personal care, household tasks, cooking, financial matters, attending hospital and medical appointments, and many of the activities that most people take for granted. One of my adult children remains in full-time nappies and requires extensive daily care. Their support needs have not reduced simply because they have become adults.

The current NDIS supports allow my children to participate in the community and maintain some level of independence while continuing to live at home with their family. However, even with their existing supports, I provide a significant amount of unpaid care every day.

As the mother of multiple adult children with disabilities, it is simply impossible for me to personally provide all of the support they require. There is only one of me. When one child is attending therapy, another may need support to access the community. When one child requires assistance with daily living tasks, another may have appointments or support needs that cannot be ignored.

My younger adult children, aged 18 and 22, currently receive only six hours per week of Social and Community Participation support, plus an additional six hours on Saturdays. If these supports are reduced by half, they will effectively have only six hours per week in total to leave the house and participate in the community.

I ask the Committee to consider what this would mean in practice.

These are young adults. Yet under the proposed reductions, they may only be able to leave the house for six hours per week. We live in a household of seven people, all with varying disabilities, sensitivities, and support needs. The home environment can be challenging, and opportunities to access the broader community are critical to their wellbeing, development, mental health, and quality of life.

I have yet to meet a non-disabled 18-year-old or 22-year-old whose life is restricted to leaving the house for only six hours per week. Yet this is effectively what these funding reductions would impose on some young people with disabilities.

I would also like the Committee to understand that we have not been asking for additional support despite our children’s growing needs.

As our younger children have transitioned into adulthood, we have considered applying for increased support hours. Their needs have not decreased as they have become older; in many ways, the expectations placed upon them as adults have increased. They should be building independence, participating in their communities, forming friendships, exploring employment opportunities, attending appointments independently where possible, and developing the skills required for adult life.

However, we chose not to seek additional funding. Like many families, we became increasingly concerned by reports of participants receiving funding reductions following reassessments and reviews. Rather than risk losing the support our children already had, we decided to work around the hours they had been allocated.

The reality is that these hours were never increased as our children grew older. In fact, over the years, their support has only decreased. The current level of funding was already inadequate when considering the needs of two young adults who require significant support to access their communities and develop independence. Yet now those already-limited supports are at risk of being reduced even further.

This creates a situation where families are discouraged from requesting reasonable and necessary supports because they fear losing what little assistance they currently receive. That is not a system that encourages participants to build capacity, increase independence, or pursue meaningful goals.

My 18-year-old and 22-year-old should not be spending the majority of their lives confined to their home because adequate community access supports are unavailable. They should have opportunities to participate in activities, build relationships, develop life skills, and work towards employment and greater independence. Reducing their already limited supports will move them further away from these goals, not closer to them.

I simply cannot fill the gap left by reduced supports. If the hours for all of my children are reduced, I will be required to be present for one child while another misses out entirely. The reality is that there are not enough hours in the day for one person to provide the level of support that multiple adults with significant disabilities require.

I also have my own significant health conditions. I am not an NDIS participant and have never sought to become one because I have managed my own challenges and have continued caring for my family. However, if support hours are significantly reduced and the caring burden increases further, I genuinely do not believe I will be able to continue coping.

At that point, I would be faced with two options. Either I would need to seek support for myself through government-funded systems due to caregiver burnout, or my 5 adult children would need to be placed into Supported Independent Living (SIL) arrangements because I could no longer meet their needs at home.

This outcome would not save money. In fact, it would dramatically increase costs to the NDIS. The cost of supporting my children in SIL homes would be many times greater than the cost of maintaining their current community participation and support arrangements while they remain living with family.

I also care for my husband, who is autistic and has developed a serious medical condition that prevents him from working full-time. As a result, I am also providing care and support to him. Like many family carers across Australia, I provide countless hours of unpaid care because I love my family and want them to live fulfilling lives.

However, there comes a point where the expectations placed on family carers become unrealistic and unsustainable.

Many families like mine quietly provide extraordinary amounts of unpaid care every day. Parents continue supporting adult children long after childhood has ended. Spouses care for partners. Families fill the gaps because they want their loved ones to thrive.

But no policy should assume that one person can indefinitely provide the level of support required by multiple adults with significant disabilities without adequate assistance.

I urge the Committee to carefully consider the real-life consequences of reducing NDIS supports. Reductions to Social and Community Participation funding will not increase independence. Instead, they risk increasing isolation, reducing community engagement, worsening mental health outcomes, increasing caregiver burnout, and ultimately forcing more participants into far more expensive forms of care.

I respectfully ask the Committee to:

• Protect funding for Assistance with Social and Community Participation and other essential supports.

• Ensure that people with significant and permanent disabilities are not unfairly removed from the NDIS.

• Recognise the enormous contribution made by unpaid family carers and the limits of what families can reasonably provide.

• Consider the long-term financial consequences of forcing participants from family homes into Supported Independent Living arrangements due to inadequate community supports.

• Ensure that any reforms strengthen, rather than weaken, the ability of people with disabilities to participate fully in Australian society.

The NDIS has allowed my family to continue caring for our loved ones at home while giving them opportunities to participate in their communities and live meaningful lives. I ask that these supports be protected so that families like mine can continue to do what we have always don—care for our loved ones with dignity, compassion, and hope for their future.

Thank you for considering my submission.

Yours sincerely, (Name withheld)