Federal budget 2025: $175m to stop NDIS fraud as payments to drop
The Albanese Government has been under intense pressure to bring the cost of the disability insurance scheme under control. Here’s what’s afoot if Labor wins re-election.
Federal Budget
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The NDIS continues to rival the annual defence budget, as the government pours millions more dollars into fraud detection services.
The Albanese Government has been under intense pressure to bring the cost of the disability insurance scheme under control, which has ballooned to $46bn to become the second fastest growing payment over the medium term, coming second only to interest on government debt.
Projections are almost on track to gradually reduce the growth rate of the NDIS from 12 per cent in 2024-25, coming in just shy of its to 8.4 per cent target in 2025-
Labor expects the number of NDIS participants to rise over the next four years, but it also expects payments to drop by $954m within the next financial year, which will equate to an estimated decrease of $3.9bn over the next five years. This largely reflects lower spending over the year to date and therefore lower forecast NDIS payments.
In an effort to keep expenditure down in the long run, the government has vowed to spend a further $175m to crack down on people defrauding the system. The money will be spread across four years to enhance the National Disability Insurance Agency’s fraud detection technology systems, and will be kept in reserve until fraud and compliance system enhancements outlined in previous budgets are complete.
The NDIS Fraud Fusion Taskforce has so far launched 500 investigations and referred 50 people to court.
While this is good news for the nation’s finances, disability groups say the money isn’t going where it’s needed.
Spinal Life Australia chief executive Mark Townend, who runs a not-for-profit NDIS provider, said the focus needed to be about making the scheme sustainable and fixing the systemic flaws.
“I don’t want to see any more money spent on bureaucracy,” he said.
“We need to spend taxpayers’ money better. It’s the everyday rip offs and inefficiencies that are costing us. Yes, there are crime gangs making a couple of million bucks here and there, but the biggest waste is coming from the machine – the NDIA itself.”
Mr Townend said other costs that needed to be addressed included staffing, which has increased by quarter of a billion dollars since the last election, medical reports which are not being read and legal costs that are wasted.
“The $46 billion being spent on the NDIS should be enough money to look after people with genuine disabilities in Australia,” Mr Townsend said.
During the past three years the number of staff running the scheme has swollen. The total annual staffing bill has jumped by more than a quarter of a billion dollars since 2022.
The number of senior executives at the NDIA have also shot up, with multiple senior managers enjoying an annual package of more than half a million dollars.
The NDIA CEO Rebecca Falkingham is on a package amounting to $808,600 – $220,000 more than the Prime Minister.
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Originally published as Federal budget 2025: $175m to stop NDIS fraud as payments to drop
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