National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026
Submission 59
My 24 year old daughter has a moderate intellectual disability which results in significant and permanent impairments across all areas of daily functioning. She is unable to safely or independently manage daily living tasks and requires continuous supervision, prompting, support, and assistance to function in everyday life and participate in the community.
Her disability affects every aspect of daily living, including personal care, hygiene, dressing, meal preparation, eating, household tasks, communication, understanding information, shopping, medication management, travel, safety awareness, social participation, and maintaining daily routines. She is unable to independently make safe decisions, navigate the community alone, manage appointments or finances, or respond appropriately to risks and emergencies. Due to her limited functional capacity, she must have someone with her at all times to ensure her safety, wellbeing, and ability to participate in daily life.
Funded support workers are essential to assist her with daily activities and social and community participation. These supports enable her to access the community safely, attend appointments, engage in social and recreational activities, maintain routines, and achieve an acceptable quality of life. Outside funded support hours, all care, supervision, transport, and support needs are provided by her parents, who manage her ongoing daily care and safety.
The proposed changes under the National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 raise serious concerns regarding her future ability to function safely and remain connected to her community. Of particular concern are the proposed changes to social, civic, and community participation supports and capacity building daily activities. The Government has stated that participant budgets for these supports will be “re-set” and progressively adjusted from 1 October 2026.
Health, Disability and Ageing Australia
The Bill and associated reform documents state:
“Participant supports budgets for social, civic and community participation supports and capacity building daily activities will be progressively adjusted from 1 October 2026.”
Health, Disability and Ageing Australia
The Government has also indicated that these supports are being reduced to align with lower historical spending levels and broader cost-saving measures across the NDIS.
Health, Disability and Ageing Australia
For my daughter, community participation is not optional or recreational. Due to the severity of her intellectual disability, funded support is what enables her to safely leave the home, engage with others, access activities, maintain social connection, develop routine, and participate in society. Reductions to these supports would significantly increase her isolation, dependence on ageing family carers, and risk of social exclusion. Without adequate funded support for daily activities and community access, she would lose critical opportunities for inclusion, participation, emotional wellbeing, and quality of life.
The proposed reforms appear to place greater emphasis on limiting costs and redefining supports, rather than recognising the reality that people with significant intellectual disability rely on ongoing human support to participate in ordinary community life. While the reforms state they aim to “put the community back into community participation,” the reduction or
National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026
Submission 59
resetting of individual participant budgets risks reducing the practical supports required for people like my daughter to actually access that community safely.