Older recipients to cost NDIS scheme $214m a year

It will cost the federal government $214m in one year just to pay for people older than 65 in the NDIS.

Mike Baird, Malcolm Turnbull and Daniel Andrews at the NDIS signing yesterday.

It will cost the federal government $214 million in one year just to pay for people older than 65 in the National­ Disability Insurance Scheme, according to figures in the agreements for the full rollout in NSW and Victoria.

In one of his first major acts as Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull yesterday signed the agreements with premiers Mike Baird and Daniel Andrews, laying out a blueprint for the escalation of ­support in those two states.

But the NDIS is far from complete, with Western Australia unlikely to sign up to the model at all and South Australia bickering over funding shortfalls which are a result of its own errors in projections for the number of children in the trial.

The Australian understands Queensland has agreed to its preferred form of the NDIS rollout in the state, beginning with a swift launch site early next year, but the agreement is still sitting with the federal government. No agreement has yet been signed for Tasmania, although it is not far away.

In Canberra yesterday, Mr Turnbull said the agreements would help 140,000 people in NSW when it reached full rollout in 2018 and 105,000 in Victoria when it gets there in 2019.

“This marks a huge milestone towards the delivery of one of the largest social policy reforms in our nation’s history,” he said.

Mr Andrews agreed. “There is a group of politicians sitting up here but it is not our day, this is a day for those who have ­campaigned for so long to deliver this sort of equity, this empowerment, this justice for those in our community who have every right to expect the fair go,” the ­Victorian Premier said.

NSW Premier Mike Baird was also positive. “The NDIS is a work that has been in progress for many years, many people had the dream that this could never happen,” he said. “The great news is today it is happening and, importantly, it is funded.”

For the first time, the agreements estimate how many people older than 65 will be in the NDIS in the two states in 2017-18 — 7213. That will cost the federal government $214m that year alone ­because, in the earliest stages of the NDIS, the Gillard government agreed to pick up the cost of every older person on its own.

There is a cap on the NDIS at age 65 but if someone turns 65 while already in the scheme they can remain with it for life. These ageing costs were never fully modelled and The Australian ­revealed last year that they would add about $6 billion annually to the NDIS by 2044.

In Victoria, the state government will spend $3.275bn over the three years from 2016-17 to the full rollout while the commonwealth will spend $2.5bn.

In NSW, the state will fund $3.7bn and the federal government $2.75bn. NSW will pay the commonwealth almost $300m for the cost of young people living in residential care and Victoria will pay almost $200m.

Those who don’t qualify for support on the NDIS will be guaranteed “continuity of support” under existing or similar prog­rams and for those older than 65, or older than 50 for indig­enous people, the federal government will pick up the tab to the tune of $668m over the next three years.

Labor hailed the agreements as “great news” for people with disabilities in NSW and Victoria but said it was “absolutely critic­al” that the rollouts in other states and territories occurred in full and on time. “This country is smart and rich and compassionate enough to give people with disability and the people who love them an equal go in Australia,” Bill Shorten said.