National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026
Submission 925
There are three people in our household with a disability, currently only one of us is on the NDIS scheme with another in the process of applying. From my understanding of the changes, we are one of the families that will have NDIS completely removed. We rely on the NDIS to cover our sons functional therapy costs and in the future, my appointment costs. Our funding amount is likely pretty low in comparison to other families, but the difference it makes to our lives is huge. Prior to being on the NDIS, the amount of admin, stress and financial strain was intense. Especially as most of that admin, stress and financial strain fell to me, also an adult with a disability. I was in intense burnout trying to manage working full time to pay for appointments (even then it was barely enough with the high costs of appointments and the high costs of living) and care for two kids with disabilities. The act of taking away the Medicare admin, and the cost of a few appointments a week, has allowed me a bit more time to care for myself to ensure that I am around to look after my young kids – and continue working and paying taxes. Removing that care would leave us in a situation that is not sustainable. I have been told if I continue the way I am (working and functioning way above my capacity) I will lose functional capacity and will develop chronic fatigue. Then I will start costing Australia more money, and so will my family as a result.
The proposed changes seem to aim to put some kids into the care of schools (most of which are already too stretched to manage kids that need extra help) and leave adults with nothing. These changes are aimed at removing support for families with disabilities to save money, rather than taking a good look at the system and how it functions to see if money can be saved there instead. Why have you not considered auditing the providers? The ones who charge more for their services for NDIS funded families, or only take NDIS clients and charge a ridiculous amount? NDIS money will continue to go into these providers pockets and leave severely disadvantaged families struggling. The flow on affect of these cuts will be higher divorce rates, higher domestic violence, higher violence towards children with disabilities, more children unable to participate in society in the future, higher teenage and adult suicide rates and higher unemployment rates. All you need to do is look at the rate of employment with disabilities and how it has changed over the years with support to see what will happen when that support is removed.
The NDIS needs a reform, I think most of us would agree it could be much more efficient. But this is not a well thought out move at all and completely illogical, I would have thought our government would have taken a lot more care and thought before they decided to remove support from vulnerable people instead of taking a look at where and how much of that money is being spent.