One third of seriously mentally ill applicants have been rejected for NDIS, data reveals

A “massive” problem applying the NDIS to serious mental illnesses has seen more than a third of applicants ruled ineligible, data reveals.

Professor Ian Hickie says the sector is experiencing a “massive, massive problem in applying the NDIS to mental health” Picture: Richard Dobson

More than one-third of people with serious mental illnesses who have applied for the $22 billion National Disability Insurance Scheme have been rejected, almost three times the ineligibility rate across all other disability groups.

The new data, given to a parliamentary inquiry by the agency in charge of the scheme’s rollout, has highlighted an ongoing problem about the way psychosocial disabilities were shoehorned into the scheme without any testing.

Federal and state governments have already set aside almost $300 million in additional funding to support mentally ill people who have not managed to gain access to the disability scheme.

This is significant because the entire budget for three Commonwealth programs and most state services is slated to transfer to the NDIS at full rollout even though just a fraction of the current clientele will be eligible for the disability scheme.

Former national mental health commissioner and University of Sydney professor Ian Hickie told The Australian the sector is experiencing a “massive, massive problem in applying the NDIS to mental health.”

“We started with a gross underestimate of the numbers at 65,000 when we already knew there were 250,000 people under various existing schemes and services that we would have thought would be relevant to the NDIS at some level,” Professor Hickie said.

“The envelope they have now is based on funding, not need, and we are seeing that in this data.”

Even at a conservative estimate, the Federal Department of Health estimated more than 90,000 people — or 30,000 extra participants — would be eligible than are currently modelled under the NDIS.

Professor Hickie, a co-director of the Brain and Mind Centre at the University of Sydney, said eligibility rules are being applied even more rigorously for this cohort because of the mismatch in forecasts.

“In a sense, the original epidemiology (forecast) was squeezed to make a smaller number of people fit into the scheme,” he said.

Almost 2900 former clients of the three major Commonwealth programs that provided individual support for people with psychosocial disabilities before the NDIS have a current plan under the new scheme.

Funding for the largest federal program, Personal Helpers and Mentors, has dropped 44 per cent since 2015-16.

About 8800 clients will receive “continuity of support” which means they are not expected to be eligible.

The Coalition has directed the Productivity Commission to report on the economic outcomes of the national mental health system — clinical and disability — with the final report due in May next year.

“The commission won’t just touch on this, it will crash headlong into the issues with the NDIS and mental health,” he said.