A Hunter man with autism, ADHD, depression and anxiety says he was stripped of almost all his NDIS support with no warning.
The 25-year-old, who the Newcastle Herald has agreed to call Zac to protect his identity, has been supported by the NDIS since December 2020.
The support helped him leave the house, do his shopping, build friendships and start a course at TAFE, he said.
"I've been using it to get out and just live, you know, get my shopping done, try to get out in the community and actually have friends, instead of being at home all the time and suffering," Zac said.
He left high school early after being constantly unwell, and said he had to quickly "figure out how to be an adult".
His support has been central to helping him build the skills and confidence to enrol in TAFE, a step he describes as a genuine turning point.
Earlier this year, Zac and his support coordinator met with a representative from Uniting NSW, which manages his support on behalf of the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA).
They said they were told his existing plan, funding roughly three hours of support a day, was working well and would be continued.
It was renewed as expected.
Then, in June, Zac said he received a phone call from an NDIA representative about 5.30pm, after his support coordinator had finished work. He was told he would be getting a new plan.
By the next afternoon, his support had been cut to two hours a week of in-home assistance and three hours a week of community access.
This funding structure, his support coordinator said, was assessed using reports from early 2024, despite up-to-date assessments being ready to submit.
"We had reports done this year," Zac said. "But they wouldn't let us submit them. So they based it on early 2024 documents, and on the basis of that, they have absolutely slashed it."
Funding for his support coordination and his psychologist was cut entirely, effective the following day.
That left Zac without the chance to have his coordinator present on the call, and with no formal correspondence beyond the phone call itself.
"There was no correspondence," his support coordinator said. "It's just literally that one phone call."
The cuts have left Zac's remaining hours barely usable.
A minimum 1.5-hour booking requirement means a support worker accompanying him to his TAFE class consumes half his weekly community access allocation.
"It gets to the point where the hours are so limiting that you can't actually use them," Zac said.
"It doesn't even feel like they've built a system where you can use the whole reason they're giving you money."
With three hours a week to cover TAFE travel and everything else, Zac says he has to choose between basic tasks.
"You have to ration out your hours and be like, am I going to the shops or am I going to TAFE, which one is more important?"
He says the reduced support doesn't just cost him time; it also risks undoing the progress he's made.
"It's very easy for them to do the bare minimum," he said.
"Yes, they can give me the very minimum and I'll sit at home and do nothing, and that's all that will happen with me.
"But if I have more support, I can go out and do these things."
Since starting TAFE, Zac says his anxiety has resurfaced.
"I now have to battle anxiety, which looked like it wasn't as bad a couple of months ago, but that's because I was doing nothing."
His support workers say the loss of structured, ongoing support, rather than one-off "cured" outcomes, puts him at greater risk, not less, given his disabilities are lifelong.
"Without them, people like [Zac] are at risk," one support worker said.
"I think a lot of lives are at risk if this continues and the government keeps cutting funding."
Zac's family has limited capacity to fill the gap.
Zac said he was told the change was linked to the government's proposed NDIS reforms despite the relevant legislation not being before the Parliament until this week.
On Tuesday, the bill was debated in the senate, receiving amendments before it passed the lower house on Wednesday.
Among the amendments was a tweak to allow vulnerable participants whose budget is impacted by a new ministerial power to apply for more funding through a plan variation.
"We do recognise that there is a need to safeguard against risk to participate in health and safety, particularly for that group of people who require support 24 hours a day," NDIS Minister Jenny McAllister said.
"And so we are establishing a new plan variation pathway for people who have high support needs. This is intended to address participants who require continuous care over a 24-hour period. These participants will be able to apply for a plan variation within 90 days of a support determination applying to them."
Greens senator Jordon Steele-John warned the changes would impact people with disabilities who require support workers to go into the community the most.
"This government, in this bill, will be cutting the supports currently available, currently funded, to enable a disabled person to go outside, maybe once or twice a week," he said.
"The ripple effects of this will be terrible. The stress that it will create is beyond imagining."
The Herald put questions to the NDIA about its processes for notifying participants of plan changes, accepting updated medical evidence, and whether any elements of the proposed reforms were being applied ahead of the legislation passing Parliament.
"Pending the enactment of new legislation, current NDIS eligibility and planning policies remain in place," An NDIA spokesperson said.
"Participants should continue to access their disability-related supports and services as outlined in their existing NDIS plans."
The agency said fluctuations in funding were a normal part of the planning process and were unrelated to the government's proposed changes.
"It is normal for plans to go up and down as participants' needs change over time," the spokesperson said.
"This is not related to the proposed reforms.
"The NDIA works closely with participants throughout their NDIS plan journey and our priority is ensuring every participant has access to the disability-related supports they need," the spokesperson said, adding that funding decisions took into account "all available evidence supplied, including that from medical and allied health professionals".
The NDIA's response did not directly address why Zac's updated 2026 reports were not accepted, why the change was communicated by an after-hours phone call, or why his new plan took effect the following day.
Zac says the way his case was handled has shaken something deeper than his day-to-day routine.
"The NDIS and disability stuff is one of the things that actually made me proud of this country," he said.
"Seeing how they're treating people, seeing how they're treating me, it breaks my heart."
He believes people with disability are being targeted because they are least able to fight back.
"We literally will find it harder to fight that because we're already struggling," he said.
