Labor reveals controversial scheme to cut services for austistic kids in bid to save NDIS

Labor has launched a radical plan in a bid to save the NDIS which could see costs slashed by $1 billion dollars a week after six in 10 Australians believe the scheme is broken.

The escalating costs of the NDIS – more than a $1 billion a week and rising – has become a thorn in the side of the Albanese Government.

Six out of 10 people believe the scheme is broken.

So the announcement by the Minister for Health, Disability and Ageing Mark Butler to move children with a mild disability or impairment away from the NDIS into a program called Thriving Kids – where they will receive support in the community, such as in schools – is not just a sensible move, it could be lifesaving for the scheme.

The NDIS is currently unsustainable. Without radical reform, it’s projected to cost taxpayers $105bn a year within a decade.

It was never meant to grow so fast.

Health and NDIS Minister Mark Butler addresses the National Press Club in Canberra on “Securing the Future of the NDIS” on Wednesday. Picture: NewsWire/Martin Ollman

Originally it was supposed to support around 410,000 people with a “significant and permanent disability”. It now supports just under 740,000 and it is forecast to grow to a million by 2034.

One of the unintended consequences of the introduction of the NDIS has been that many of the community supports that existed have disappeared. In turn, parents of kids with mild to moderate development delay or autism have no choice but to apply for help through the scheme.

Just under half of the participants are now children under 15. This week’s shock revelations that one in six boys are on the NDIS proves something has gone seriously wrong.

Minister Butler has committed $2bn of Commonwealth money to Thriving Kids, with the states and territories to contribute on top of that. How much that will be is yet to be thrashed out.

The number of people with psychosocial disabilities seeking help on the NDIS has also grown exponentially. Picture: Mark Wilson

He hopes this will help reduce the growth of the scheme from what was 22 per cent in 2022 down to six per cent. That might be a little ambitious.

The high number of kids on the scheme is one issue, but the number of people with psychosocial disabilities seeking help on the NDIS has also grown exponentially.

Some parents may also be concerned that community supports, with a comparatively smaller investment from government, will not meet the needs of their children like the tailored support they currently get.

They will want to see evidence that this will actually work.

Others will just be glad to get out of the NDIS, where fighting for help for their kids has become an increasingly demoralising, traumatic and bruising experience.

Originally published as Labor reveals controversial scheme to cut services for austistic kids in bid to save NDIS