National Disability Insurance Scheme funding hotspots across Australia listed
The staggering amounts of money being poured into the NDIS can be revealed, as more than $1bn a year is allocated within some areas. See where most of the cash is being spent.
The staggering amounts of money being poured into the NDIS can be revealed, as more than $1bn a year is allocated within some local council areas.
A breakdown of the $58bn funding across Australia for 2024-25 shows where the most – and least – taxpayer money is being thrown at a system in which costs are growing 10 per cent a year.
Half of the top 10-funded council areas nationwide are in South East Queensland.
The $2.27bn for Brisbane puts it understandably top of the table given the council covers a large part of the metro area.
Moreton Bay, Logan and Gold Coast are next, all with more than $1bn each, while the Sunshine Coast also make the national top 10.
NSW receives the most funding overall at $17.8bn, followed by Victoria on $14.5bn and Queensland on $12.7bn.
The Central Coast is the highest-funded district in NSW, receiving $910m.
Beyond that, the NSW list is dominated by Sydney’s west – Blacktown, Canterbury-Bankstown, Penrith, Liverpool, Cumberland and Campbelltown are all in the state’s top 10.
In Victoria, Greater Geelong ($877m) and Casey in Melbourne’s southeast ($849m) are streets ahead of the rest.
Salisbury leads the list for South Australia with $513m. Two other northern Adelaide councils, Playford and Port Adelaide Enfield, and Onkaparinga in the city’s outer south, are all around the $500m mark.
If spending was calculated per capita - spending compared to population - Greater Geelong in Victoria tops it with $3234 spending per person. One in every 23 people has NDIS funding in the council area, figures show.
Logan was next with almost $3000 per person followed by Moreton Bay with nearly $2900. Figures show one in 25 people in both council areas receive agency funding.
The NDIS’ annual cost of $50bn – which accounts for billions of dollars of allocated funding going unspent each year – is now more than Medicare and Veterans and is set to overtake Defence spending within three years.
According to this year’s federal budget, NDIS spending had the second highest annual growth in major payments, behind only interest.
National Cabinet reforms aim to cut its annual growth to 8 per cent by next year from the current 10.1 per cent – already a big drop from the 22 per cent when Labor came back to power in 2023.
The scheme has 751,446 participants and average annual funding for individuals is now $65,800.
There were 269,432 NDIS providers as of July 31, up from 215,779 a year earlier – meaning there is now more than one provider for every three NDIS clients.
The National Disability Insurance Agency alone has more than 16,000 workers, including contractors and other outsource partners.
And the total provider workforce is estimated at more than 200,000 full-time equivalents – enough to populate a major regional city the size of Townsville.
Former Labor prime minister Julia Gillard, and then community services minister Jenny Macklin, launched plans for the NDIS in 2011 and it began operating in 2013.
Businessman Tony Shepherd led a National Commission of Audit into the NDIS more than a decade ago under the then Coalition government.
The commission warned full NDIS implementation had to be slow and urged an overhaul to ensure it “exercised budget control to ensure long-term viability” – a goal successive governments failed to achieve.
Mr Shepherd, now Infrastructure SA chairman and a director of organisations including Virgin Airlines, now says the system is failing the most vulnerable.
He said the three main concerns of the commission – about who qualifies for support, the process for participants selecting a service, and the need foran “in-built” auditing system – have never been addressed.
“(The NDIS) was a very good thing to do, and I still believe it’s a very good initiative, as it helps the people who need help the most,” he said.
“But if these reforms had been followed through, which would not have impeded the provision of the NDIS, the system would not be under the pressures that it is currently.
“And maybe there would be money left over for people who are deeply in need.”
Children and Young People with Disability Australia CEO, Skye Kakoschke-Moore,
said NDIS plans were not suitable for many families struggling to cope with raising a child with disability.
Ms Kakoschke-Moore, a former South Australian senator, called for system-wide reforms, especially around eligibility reassessments.
She said many families were applying to be on the NDIS because there was no alternative.
“Since the NDIS rolled out, that’s where governments are directing their funding … it has left a real desert of support for those who can’t get on it,” she said.
“At the moment if you’re out, you have no other options, and that is a terrifying prospect for families.”
Families were “too often forced to go on waiting lists for assessments to prove their eligibility for the NDIS, only for these reports to not be read,” she said. “Their plans then don’t address the specific needs of their child.”
Australian Federation of Disability Organisations’ national manager of systemic advocacy and policy, Matthew Hall, said short-term fixes would cost taxpayers more in the long run.
“Disability supports are not necessarily used or needed in a straight line or linear (way),” he said.
“The needs of a person with disability may not be the same each month. Short funding periods make it difficult for participants to plan and access services with long waiting lists or few providers, especially in regional, rural and remote areas.”
Mr Hall also raised concerns about funding decisions being made based on average utilisation rates rather than on individual needs.
He said this was similar to the commonwealth’s Centrelink Robodebt scandal that used an algorithm based on income averaging to assess entitlements to welfare payments.
“We support scheme changes that make it sustainable, but what we say is that for changes to be most effective, they have to be co-designed by those with lived experience,” he said.
Federal opposition spokesman Phil Thompson said the enormous cost of the scheme, paired with inadequate services for some participants, was “clearly an issue for concern”.
“It’s vital that the NDIS remains financially viable to ensure that Australians living with a disability can access the supports they need into the future … (and) is accessible for Australians who need it for generations to come,” he said.
“(The data) demonstrates worrying inconsistencies in the delivery of the scheme in terms of access to services and support.
“This government’s failures and mismanagement is leaving Australians living with disability without answers about the essential supports they rely on.”
A spokesman for NDIS Minister Jenny McAllister said it was a “demand-driven” scheme.
“Moderating the growth of the NDIS has not come at a cost to participant budgets or overall payments,” the spokesman said.
“The NDIA assesses all relevant information received from participants and allied health teams when making decisions in line with the NDIS Act.
“It can take a long time and cost a lot of money for people to source supporting evidence to have a planning meeting. Thousands of pages of documents can be generated as a result of this process. We think there is a better way.”
The agency, he said, has secured a “world-leading support needs assessment tool to deliver new way of planning that will be fairer, more consistent and easier to navigate for participants”.
Ms Gillard declined to comment while Ms Macklin did not respond.
A lack of support – and a long drive to get any
Latoya Redman has been fighting tooth and nail to get the right kind of NDIS care for her daughter who was born with a rare genetic condition.
The 32-year-old from Maryborough in Queensland has to drive her two-year-old Luna south to the Sunshine Coast to access support services and is frustrated by the lack of support from NDIS.
Despite being registered under the system, Ms Redman can only get 16 hours per week of qualified care for two-year-old Luna, who needs 24/7 care given her condition.
This has left Ms Redman stranded at her home, unable to work and build an income to give Luna the life she deserves.
Luna has a rare genetic disorder called Kleefstra syndrome which left her with two holes in her heart and a chronic lung disease.
She has to be hooked to an oxygen tank while sleeping, and is unable to chew and swallow food.
When Ms Redman joined NDIS, she was initially thrilled to receive $32,000 but was blown away by how quickly it was eaten up by hefty expenses such as physiotherapy sessions and intense care.
She said she felt like NDIS left her stranded, unable to get the required care for her daughter’s rare condition.
“I get on Centrelink and people see me as a dole bludger … And when it comes to NDIS, people are like, ‘Oh, you’re so lucky that you have it,” Ms Redman said.
“We are 100 per cent lucky, but also the system has created a dynamic that we have to rely on it. We are almost (made) helpless by the system.
“I tried getting full-time support for my daughter so I can go back to work full-time because I need to get a bigger house.
“NDIS just turned around and said, ‘No, the 16-hour support work that you get a week is enough for your family’.”
More Coverage
Originally published as National Disability Insurance Scheme funding hotspots across Australia listed
