Cuddle therapy, crystals, reiki axed in final NDIS supports list

Controversial therapies will be officially off limits to NDIS participants, in sweeping new measures set to take effect within days.

Cuddle therapy, crystals, vapes and tickets to concerts will no longer by able to be claimed on the NDIS, with the government releasing a final list of supports that can be claimed on the scheme.

The list explicitly bans participants from claiming day-to-day living costs such as rent, mortgages, insurance, plus alternative therapies and “healing practices” which are not backed by evidence from Thursday October 3.

The extensive list includes reiki, shamanic healing, yoga therapy, wilderness therapy, hypnotherapy, life coaches, and cuddle therapy.

Lifestyle products like vapes, cigarettes, and legal cannabis, and dating or matchmaking services will also be prohibited.

National Disability Insurance Scheme participants will be given a one-year transition period, with administrators able to waive mistaken claims costing less than $1500.

NDIS Minister Bill Shorten said the finalised list will provide clarity to participants. Picture: NewsWire/ Martin Ollman

Participants who are currently accessing a support which may be on the banned list will also be able to retain the service until their plan expires.

Mr Shorten said the strict guidelines would give participants more transparency.

“We are just putting certain therapies beyond all reasonable doubt that they are not what service providers should be offering,” he said.

“We’re just being really clear that this scheme is going to be run properly, transparently, in the best of participants, not some service providers who are selling therapies, which we cannot find much in the way of scientific or evidentiary basis.”
There will also be a substitution list which allows a participant to claim an item or service which is not on the list of approved supports, however, Mr Shorten said there would be “very clear rules”.

The changes to the services the NDIS will provide funds for will come into place for new applications from Thursday. Picture: NewsWire / Naomi Jellicoe

Tuesday’s list clarified which services can only be claimed through the NDIS, to reduce doubling up with other government services, such as supplying hearing aids through Hearing Australia or services which can be claimed through Medicare.

The changes come as the government has vowed to curb the ballooning scheme’s growth by 13.8 per cent a year, with more participants expected to sign onto the NDIS.

In total the expansive reforms are expected to save taxpayers $14bn over four years.

Mr Shorten said while the government hasn’t “banked any savings on this,” the explicit list of supports will “help with cost growth in the future”.

“What we have seen is the rise of opportunist and unethical providers … and they’re selling snake oil,” he said.

“They’re selling stuff which frankly doesn’t work and should be being paid for.”