National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026
Submission 974
Dear Community Affairs Legislation Committee,
My name is , I am 29 years old and live in Melbourne, VIC. I have lived with numerous significant psychosocial and physical disabilities for many years, and I have relied on NDIS for my survival since 2022.
I am writing to you today as I have serious concerns about select proposed sections of the ‘NDIS Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026’.
My greatest concern is that myself and many others like me will be kicked off the NDIS due to the implementation of the proposed bill, without adequate supports in place for our survival. I have been lead to believe that this bill will specifically target those with psychosocial disabilities like myself. I note that I was only accepted onto NDIS for one of my multiple disabilities due to the stringent requirements and the arbitrary decision making of assessors.
I currently rely on support workers to grocery shop, cook me regular meals, keep my house clean, and drive me to doctors appointments. Because of the support I receive through NDIS, I am able to have a baseline quality of life. Without support workers funded through my NDIS plan, I do not have adequate informal supports or capacity to complete these tasks myself. If I were to be kicked off the NDIS, my quality of life would severely deteriorate. I would lose significant capacity in areas that NDIS has allowed me to maintain function in, including basic self-care functions such as eating and showering, and I would not be able to maintain the 1 day of work from home that I currently am able to sustain due to the support I receive.
I know that there are many NDIS participants a in similar position to myself. According to NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission’s participant table from their Inquiry Report in 2023, 11% or 85,190 of NDIS participants receive funding for psychosocial supports.1
I believe my fear of being kicked off the NDIS without appropriate alternate support is justified. After the delivery of the proposed Bill, Mark Butler confirmed with ABC that “initial modelling projected the new approach would reduce the number of people who use the NDIS from 760,000 currently to 600,000 by the end of the decade.” Butler elaborated on this statistic by stating to the ABC that “Australians with lower support needs or higher functional capacity … will be moved out of the scheme.“2
I’m aware that these numbers provided by Butler are an estimate linked to the effects of the proposed Bill’s Schedule 1, Part 1 – “Defining functional capacity”. According to the Bill’s official factsheet, “[Schedule 1, Part 1] established the legal framework for determining
1 https://www.ndiscommission.gov.au/sites/default/files/2023 04/Own%20Motion%20Inquiry%20into%20aspects%20of%20supported%20accommodation%20Final.pdf 2 https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-04-22/mark-butler-ndis-overhaul-eligibility-test/106592186
National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026
Submission 974
access to the NDIS based on substantially reduced functional capacity.“3 I understand that this definition within the bill will be used to deem a participant’s functional capacity as not ‘substantially reduced’ enough. This definition underpins the gravely uncertain future of psychosocial participants like myself.
I have also concluded, according to the timeline of the bill’s rollout provided by the Australian government, that supposed replacement services for those with higher functional capacity will not be substantial and in place by the time I may be kicked off the NDIS. According to the timeline, current participants will be re-assessed with the new functional capacity definition by 30/09/26, while alternate services for those with higher functional capacity will begin to be established by the inclusive communities fund, which doesn’t even have a due date announced for rollout.4 This timeline gives me little reassurance that I will be provided with adequate support. This is not to mention the apparently arbitrary nature with which individuals on NDIS are already having supports substantially restricted.
Finally, I do not believe this bill has been proposed with adequate consideration of the disabled community. Ultimately the harm that the delivery of the proposed bill has already caused to the psychosocially disabled community is significant and life altering. I sincerely believe that the implementation of this bill has and will cause much more harm than help for myself and my community.
Thank you for your consideration.
Regards,
3 www.health.gov.au/sites/default/files/2026-05/ndis-amendment-securing-the-ndis-for-future-generations bill-2026—fact-sheet.pdf 4 https://www.health.gov.au/resources/publications/securing-the-ndis-for-future-generations-timeline 0?language=en