National Disability Insurance Scheme: $48m in funds to stop NDIS rorters

New fraud detection staff will be hired as part of a major crackdown stamping out rorters who rip off the National Disability Insurance Scheme.

A crackdown on “bloodsuckers” ripping off the National Disability Insurance Scheme will be bolstered with a $48.3m investment in new fraud detection staff as Labor also explores technology options to stamp out rampant rorting that costs taxpayers billions of dollars.

It can be exclusively revealed the 2023-24 Budget will include new funds for the National Disability Insurance Agency to hire 200 additional staff tasked with turbocharging efforts to detect and ­prevent fraud and noncompliance payments and also develop a business case for a proposal to further reduce misuse of the scheme.

The team will work in concert with the Fraud Fusion Taskforce which was created last year and be overseen by a former Australian Taxation Office senior official to find new ways of pursuing fraud, including potential technology solutions that could quickly detect and prevent rorting across the NDIS.

NDIS and Government Services Minister Bill Shorten said the funding was critical to ensure every dollar of the scheme went to Australians with profound ­disabilities.

“For too long crooks have preyed on the scheme,” he said. “We are investing to stop these bloodsuckers ripping off Australians with disability.”

Minister for Government Services and the NDIS Bill Shorten. Picture: NCA NewsWire

Mr Shorten said the federal government had found evidence of “egregious fraud” that involved “complex criminal networks ripping off NDIS participants and Australian taxpayers”.

“This funding will ensure the agency has more capability to address fraud and noncompliance,” he said.

Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission chief Michael Phelan last year estimated 15 to 20 per cent of all NDIS expenditure was rorted.

The annual running cost for the scheme in 2022-23 is about $35bn and expected to grow to $50bn within the decade.

NDIS is plagued by scammers and the government is set to come down on rorters.

Mr Shorten said the fraud taskforce Labor created in October was already investigating “criminal syndicates”.

“Many have drawn down millions of dollars in funding from hundreds of participants,” he said. “People ripping off the NDIS are going to jail. In the past 12 months, NDIS fraudsters have been sentenced to a combined 12.5 years in jail time for ripping off the scheme.”

“Participants and their families and service providers in the sector now know we will do something about the rorting.”

Syndicates being investigated have been caught targeting vulnerable people with false information about how the NDIS works and how they can spend their funds, recruiting vulnerable people to gain access to the scheme with the promise of cash or vouchers or gifts, and encouraging people to fake medical evidence and diagnosis to get access to funding.

Fraudsters have also encouraged participants to pay for holidays, lifestyle and luxury items with NDIS money and claimed for services that they never delivered.

Many criminal syndicates hide behind multiple ABNs and fake identities.

Originally published as National Disability Insurance Scheme: $48m in funds to stop NDIS rorters