Have Your Say on the NDIS Reforms

• Access test changes:
  • Shift to standardised functional assessments: replacing diagnosis-based eligibility from 2028, you will be assessed on your ability to do activities without any assistance, assistive technology, or home modifications. This fails to capture your real-life needs and the context of your environment. It also disallows access for early intervention pathways for those with young onset to access therapies and support that would keep them better for longer (e.g., family responsibilities, staying in the workforce, participating in the community). It will fail to capture the complex, day-to-day fluctuations of Parkinson’s.
  • Access test consideration of permanence: imposes very broad requirements of undergoing a wide range of treatments which may not be available to you due to distance or costs; have a personal preference or cultural reasons not to undergo significant and invasive procedures; may not qualify for.
  • Consideration of alternative support systems: that meet your disability needs and hence will limit access to NDIS (i.e. Workers Comp, Aged Care system, Health system, etc)
• Support determinations: power for the minister alone instead of needing to engage with state and territory governments, enables minister to reduce funding for certain ‘groups of supports’ by a certain percentage across the board, instead of still providing what is determined to be reasonable and necessary for someone
  • Cuts to social and community participation budgets:  new laws give the Minister sweeping powers to reduce funding for specific supports across all participants’ plans, without a case-by-case review. It is intended that social, civic and community participation budgets will be cut by 50%. Furthermore, this would not be eligible for challenge by a person that e.g. requires $40K but with the blanket cut to this support, is only receives $20K.
  • Caps to supports: may consider a maximum frequency of therapies a participant is allowed to access. These would be capped at a certain number of visits, even if the person requires more support than that over the year due to symptom progression or fluctuations.
• Reasonable & necessary supports:
  • Value for Money: Support Rules – consider alternative support systems that meet your disability needs and therefore limits your access to NDIS (e.g. if you are already on Workers Comp, can be moved to the Aged Care system when you are over 65, or can access support from the Health system)
  • Effective and beneficial: There will be a hierarchy for how to consider supporting evidence, unlike now. Peer reviewed and generalised research will rank more highly over evidence from lived experience and treating professionals.
  • Reasonable expectation of informal supports: Considering risk to person and / or care partner we are concerned that the bars are set too high to access formal supports when they are required, putting the majority of burden onto partner, family and friends.
• Multiple impairments:
  • Whole of person basis should be considered but not all impairments should be funded, regardless if that impairment arises from the one that gets you access to the NDIS. Now funds will only get given to those impairments directly arising from an impairment that meets the access criteria.
• Planning restrictions:
  • Plan suspensions: plans can get suspended if you are unable to be contacted or until you contact them. But the reason may be out of the participant’s control.
  • Roll-overs: will have an end date instead of ‘reassessment’ date, and more importantly funding not spent DOES NOT get rolled over from one plan to the next. This impacts conditions like Parkinson’s that have fluctuating symptoms and therefore support needs that cannot be only scheduled regularly.
  • Restrictions on unscheduled plan reviews: It is becoming much harder to request a plan reassessment when your symptoms progress. The NDIA will only allow reviews for “significant and ongoing” changes with strict new rules.
• Fraud:
  • Record keeping: you need to keep records if you are a participant 3 years;  nominee 5 years; provider 7 years – if a person has paid but does not have a record of it, it will be considered a debt.
  • New regulatory powers: for fraud and non-compliance sit with the NDIA, but we already have the NDIS Quality & Safeguarding Commission.
• Short consultation periods and a lack of co-design: The disability community has not been given enough time, accessible information, or a legislative exposure draft to properly scrutinise these life-changing laws before they were introduced. Consultation opened May 14 and closes May 29 (extended to June 1, 2026).

How to submit:

Links to check out:

• Justice and Equity Centre explainer on the NDIS Amendment

The Government stuff: