announced <\/a>that around 160,000 people are expected to be removed from the national disability insurance scheme by 2030.<\/p>\nThe $50bn scheme\u2019s growth rate will be brought down to just 2% every year until 2030 in an effort to curb annual plan inflation and produce billions in savings. To get there, eligibility rules will be tightened, especially for children under 18.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t know what this means,\u201d Newman said.<\/p>\n
This is true for a lot of participants. There\u2019s confusion over what the new system will look like, who\u2019ll be eligible, and how it will work for kids, for adults with autism, for people in rural communities.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey haven\u2019t specified what the decision will be based on\u2026 they haven\u2019t mentioned other disabilities or support needs within those disabilities. Nothing has been detailed whatsoever.\u201d<\/p>\n
Newman said it is \u201cdisappointing but not surprising\u201d that the federal government is not taking responsibility for the scheme, but instead has made the mess, and now wants to push the issue on to the states.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s so many people they\u2019re removing from the system,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
People who no longer meet the new, unannounced eligibility requirements for the NDIS will be redirected to a foundational support program, like the previously announced Thriving Kids program, co-run by the states and territories. Thriving Kids is designed to remove children with mild autism and other developmental conditions from the scheme, and is expected to be fully set up by 2028.<\/p>\n
Last week, a report from the Grattan Institute into how to make the NDIS affordable without hurting the people who rely on it, said that while the NDIS should be reserved for children with permanent and significant disability, the Thriving Kids initiative \u201cdoes not go nearly far enough\u201d.<\/p>\n
The report said that the gap can be closed without spending any more public money \u2013 by redirecting some NDIS funds to ensure Australians can get help whether they are in the scheme or not, and no matter where they live.<\/p>\n
Services are \u2018patchy and underfunded\u2019<\/p>\n
Currently, children with developmental delay or autism make up almost half of the NDIS\u2019s 760,000 participants, and about 170,000 of those received early intervention support from the scheme in 2025, the report said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you have psychosocial needs but you\u2019ve been deemed ineligible for the NDIS, your access to support is a postcode lottery,\u201d lead author and Grattan Institute disability program director Sam Bennett said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe services you can get to give you the best chance of a better life are patchy and underfunded \u2013 or nonexistent. Rebalancing the system so there are stronger recovery-oriented supports available inside and outside the NDIS would transform the lives of Australians with psychosocial disability and make better use of existing funds.\u201d<\/p>\n
Niti Prakash runs a disability consultancy in Queensland and is worried her own daughter, 12, who has bilateral hearing loss, ADHD and dysgenesis of corpus callosum, causing developmental delays, will also be affected.<\/p>\n
She says the NDIS \u201cchanged her life\u201d, allowing her daughter to walk and talk. However, she thinks it should be means-tested and points to figures which show, for example, that the wealthy northern Sydney area has one of the highest average NDIS payments per participant. Prakash said while \u201cdisability affects the rich too,\u201d she would prefer to see a means test implemented rather than cutting people off.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy daughter\u2019s needs, alas, wouldn\u2019t be considered severe on current criteria,\u201c she said.<\/p>\n
In Ipswich, 21-year-old Gemma Jensen saw Butler make his announcement and immediately realised that it could impact the help she gets for her autism. She said that although the NDIS is not perfect, it is worth fighting for.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s important to me that we don\u2019t fail people with disabilities in Australia,\u201d Jensen said.<\/p>\n
The NDIS pays for her therapy and a support person. She lives with her parents and is studying full-time, but hopes that with the right support, she can move out and get a job. To her, the NDIS is her best hope at living independently.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can only do that if I have support in other areas that help me to work,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI worry what my future will be. Will I be stuck in my parents\u2019 house for the rest of my life? Because it\u2019s not like I don\u2019t have the capacity to eventually go off, live my life and have a career of my own.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I feel like myself and other people with autism and ADHD are being punished for needing extra help in things.\u201d<\/p>\n
Speaking at the National Press Club in Canberra ahead of the 12 May federal budget, Butler said he was making \u201chard decisions\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe NDIS costs too much and is growing too fast, put alongside any comparable government program,\u201d Butler said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd unless we take action to make it sustainable, it simply will not be there in the future for the Australians who need it most.\u201d<\/p>\n
Guardian Australia revealed earlier this month Labor had established a razor gang to drive budget savings<\/a> in the NDIS. Led by former Treasury official Anthea Long, the taskforce in the health department was launched after the 30 January national cabinet meeting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hollie-Ann Newman\u2019s four-year-old son has level two autism. Each day he needs substantial support from the NDIS \u2013…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":624240,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":{"0":"post-624239","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-australia","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624239","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=624239"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624239\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/624240"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=624239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=624239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=624239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}