Aussies with complex disabilities are being left abandoned in their beds due to NDIS cuts

Some of Australia’s most vulnerable have revealed how they are being left abandoned in their beds hungry, thirsty and in agony for days due to cuts to their NDIS plans. See their stories.

Exclusive: People with complex disabilities are being left abandoned in their beds hungry, thirsty and in agony for days on end due to cuts to their NDIS plans.

Heartbreaking messages from across the country are being posted daily to a new online portal called Harm Tracker, revealing the horrific suffering of some of Australia’s most vulnerable.

It comes as the latest figures show how authorities under pressure to keep the $1 billion a week disability scheme sustainable are on track to spend $46 million on external law firms fighting NDIS participants who are unhappy with their plans.

That’s up from the $37 million the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) spent on lawyers the year before.

People with complex disabilities are being left abandoned in their beds hungry, thirsty and in agony for days on end due to cuts to their NDIS plans. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Brenton Edwards

Despite millions spent on legal costs, the agency has the worst results of any government body at the Administrative Review Tribunal, with three quarters of NDIS participants seeing their plans change in their favour during the process.

Now Nobody Worse Off – a national coalition of disabled people, families, support workers, unions, and allies – has launched Harm Tracker to raise awareness of the “real and growing harm” that they say cuts are having on NDIS participants.

Among the 280-plus reports uploaded since July are several in which people say they fear dying because of the lack of care. One wrote they were “dying” from incredible abuse and neglect, adding the “torture and pain is beyond any comprehension”.

Others spoke of being hungry and thirsty and left lying in bed unable to go to the toilet.

“I get so hungry and am so swollen and in agony from not being able to get my treatments,” another wrote. “I cannot believe this is Australia. What happened to our country?”

As part of the cost-cutting measures, a dozen people said they had been asked or forced to move into group homes.

Naomi Robinson, a mum and registered nurse from Caboolture in Queensland, uploaded a report on Harm Tracker following cuts to her kids’ plans.

All three are neurodivergent and have had their psychology funding cut; the eldest, Eric, 13, who is constantly breaking bones because his muscles don’t react how they should, has had his physiotherapy cut in half, despite reports saying he needs more not less.

Caboolture mum Naomi Robinson with her three children Erik 13, Damien 10, and Annabella 11, who have had their NDIS plan services cut. Picture: Lachie Millard

Her daughter Bella, 11, who also uses a wheelchair due to a rare regressive seizure disorder called Lennox-Gastaut syndrome, needs a feeding tube when she’s too tired to eat.

Ms Robinson, who was told she had to fit her daughter’s tube herself every six weeks because she is a nurse, said the agency is refusing to pay for the food she needs.

“What is happening is not OK? It’s a never-ending battle,” Ms Robinson, who has to work full-time to make ends meet, said. “My mental health is crap.”

One of the organisations backing the Harm Tracker is the Australian Neurodivergent Parents Association whose president Sarah Langston said the NDIA had been repeatedly told about the harm caused by its decisions — yet the cuts continue.

The NDIA countered by saying average participant funding continues to increase year on year, up to $82,500 annually in mid-2025.

An NDIA spokeswoman said the scheme “is life-changing for over 739,000 participants and we are working to ensure participants who need it are at the heart of the NDIS”. She added the number of people taking their case to the tribunal had dropped slightly compared to the previous quarter.