NDIS criteria must be tackled

The saving of more than $600m from the projected budget forecast for the National Disability Insurance Scheme during the first seven months of the current financial year is an important step in putting the scheme on a sustainable footing.

The saving has been achieved despite almost 20,000 new participants joining the scheme in the past quarter alone.

It reflects well on efforts by former NDIS minister Bill Shorten to bring the scheme’s ballooning costs under control through a crackdown on fraud, cutting inappropriate services accessed by some participants and a ban on top-up plans within the financial year.

The government also will launch a new panel of technical experts to review “contestable” services, programs participants are using, evidence on programs’ effectiveness, and whether some services are being accessed too frequently. Such oversight is essential.

Given the need to rein in cost pressures further, however, it is concerning that NDIS Minister Amanda Rishworth said on Friday’s front page that there would be no tightening of the eligibility criteria for accessing the scheme.

That is despite Mr Shorten in 2024 signalling plans to tighten some criteria.

The latest quarterly report of the National Disability Insurance Agency shows the number of NDIS participants as a proportion of the overall population peaks between ages five and seven, with about 13 per cent of boys aged five to seven (one in eight) and 6 per cent of girls aged five to seven being participants.

The most prevalent conditions among young participants are autism and developmental delay. Serious cases of both disabilities warrant inclusion in the scheme.

But for the sake of participants with the most severe disabilities, and taxpayers, federal and state governments must reach a workable solution for support to be provided outside the NDIS for children with mild cases.

Of six million Australians with a disability, 680,000 are on the NDIS and almost a quarter of those are children under nine. That is not the prime objective for which the NDIS was established.

Australian Federation of Disability Organisations chief executive Ross Joyce argues it is important that Australians with autism continue to have “access to the support and services that they need to live an ordinary life”.

In many cases, however, the NDIS is not the appropriate body to provide that support.