NDIS review told to consider co-contributions as part of the scheme overhaul

A major company linking participants with the NDIS has called for Anthony Albanese to introduce co-payments and means testing to make the system more sustainable.

Nearly 600,000 people are on the NDIS.

A company involved with the NDIS has called for co-payments and means testing to bring spending on the scheme under control and give ­clients a “sense of empowerment”.

Kismet chief executive Mark Woodland said the NDIS should follow the model of childcare with the co-contribution that users must make to increase progressively for higher-income households.

The leading health-tech company – an online platform that matches disabled people with NDIS providers – is warning that the scheme is plagued by inefficient systems and its funding model needs fundamental change.

“Co-contributions promote participant engagement, efficiency in resource utilisation, and a sense of empowerment and control over one’s support services,” Kismet said in a submission to the NDIS review.

“Implementing means testing and co-contributions can contribute to the long-term financial ­sustainability of the NDIS, safeguarding its ability to support ­individuals with disabilities in the future.

“Co-contributions encourage participants to take an active role in managing their support services, promoting a sense of responsibility and ownership.”

There are nearly 600,000 people on the NDIS, with an average yearly support of almost $60,000 per person.

While not nominating a figure for the co-contribution, the submission said there might be a need for “exemptions and safeguards to prevent disincentives to accessing necessary support”.

About 27,000 NDIS providers are on the Kismet platform, as well as 8000 support workers and 1200 disabled participants.

Mr Woodland warned that 15 to 20 per cent of NDIS expenditure was being rorted.

Mr Woodland, who founded a similar platform for the childcare sector called Xplor, said childcare was “probably 10 years ahead of the NDIS”.

“I deeply believe that the NDIS will go the same path as education and childcare, where it starts becoming means tested and there becomes an opportunity for co-contributions … that then also brings significant savings,” he said.

NDIS Minister Bill Shorten has been given the mammoth task of keeping the cost growth of the scheme to no more than 8 per cent a year. The cost of the $30bn scheme was projected to climb to $100bn in a decade before the Prime Minister in April unveiled a yearly cap on its growth. The promise bolstered the budget bottom line by $15.3bn over the next four years but full details on how it would be achieved have been delayed until the NDIS review is completed in October.

While the government has pointed to a crackdown on rorting of the scheme as a key way to find savings, providers and economists have called for Labor to consider more systemic reforms such as changes to eligibility.

Mr Shorten has avoided committing to major changes on the scheme’s eligibility criteria or funding model, claiming he can make the huge savings in other ways, such as less frequent plan reviews and a crackdown on overcharging. Mr Shorten last year conceded the NDIS was not working as intended and launched a review into the scheme to be headed up by the scheme’s architect Bruce Bonyhady and experienced policymaker Lisa Paul.

Professor Bonyhady has said the examination of the scheme – due to be provided to government in October – was focused on what constituted “reasonable and necessary supports”, which the NDIS Act stipulates needs to be provided to participants.

Former NDIS board member Martin Laverty has called for the eligibility of the scheme to be tightened, and the amount of funding per person to be reconsidered.

Co-payment proposals have been politically fraught in the past three decades.

Former prime minister Tony Abbott lost major public support after his government’s 2014 budget, which included a $7 Medicare co-payment that never passed parliament.

Former Labor prime minister Bob Hawke proposed a $3.50 Medicare co-payment in 1991, but the contentious policy was quickly dumped when Paul Keating secured the top job.

Mr Woodland said the government had yet to control fraud in the scheme, despite it being one of Mr Shorten’s key priorities.

“We (are) seeing from our booking data and participant data ... people are claiming they have attended and a service provider saying they haven’t and vice versa,” he said.

“There’s times when people say they’re cleaning the house, say they’re doing the garden, charging people for it and then the results not being there.

“One example we saw was a carer said they attended the participant’s home and they were there all day doing things, and then the support co-ordinator got a call from the hospital saying the participant has been in hospital all day. So there was no way that the carer could have been there helping the participant.”