Half of all NDIS plans reviewed in the NT had funding slashed over last six months

NDIS participants across the country – but particularly in the Northern Territory – are increasingly complaining that their funding packages are going down, not up. Photograph: Maskot/Getty Images

At the Darwin Community Legal Centre, the staff are concerned about what’s to come for some of the most vulnerable people in the Territory. Jessica Brugmans, the senior advocate at the centre’s Seniors and Disability Rights Service, says that over the past 12 months there has been a “general trend of substantial cuts to funding” in National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) plans.

Often, those cuts have come in “ways that aren’t easily linked to an event or change in available evidence”. It has forced people to move out of their accomodation and seen them become increasingly isolated due to reduced staff to participant ratios.