Ambitious plans to claw back $15bn from national disability insurance scheme (NDIS) spending, without changing eligibility criteria, has disability advocates worried that services will be cut in other ways.
The government says it can reduce costs from $17.2bn to $1.9bn over four years – that’s enough to pay for the government’s budget centrepiece, the $14.6bn cost-of-living package.
The NDIS is the fastest growing government expense, with costs projected to increase by almost 14% a year if no action is taken – the government has pledged to cut that growth to 8%. That has alarmed many in the sector, who fear it means cuts, while the disability minister, Bill Shorten, said on Thursday money could be saved by measures including tackling rorts, spiralling costs and rip-offs.
“We’re determined to stamp out unethical practices,” he told ABC television.
“We want to support the way independent living is going to make sure we’re putting people in housing outcomes which are in their best interests.
“We want the states and other government departments to step up and look after people with disabilities who are not on the scheme.”
Shorten has previously accused the states of underspending, while saying the national scheme should be for “the most profoundly and severely impaired”.
Tuesday’s budget included $733m for better planning, coordination and more efficient delivery of services, longer-term plans with fewer reviews, and a crackdown on “shoddy therapies” in favour of “evidence-based supports”.
Nicole Lee, People with Disability Australia president, said she welcomed the federal government’s stated commitment to the NDIS, but warned of “unintended consequences” from demanding evidence-based supports.
She said the government should identify anyone exploiting people while avoiding blacklisting “new and emerging therapies” that are “delivering results”.
“We’d like to see the framework they’re using to identify what an evidence-based support is,” she said.
“What is the benchmark for the evidence base? Does it need 10 peer-reviewed papers?”
The biggest chunk of the $733m ($429m) is for better systems, processes, staffing and planning decisions at the National Disability Insurance Agency.
There’s also money for better support, coordination and planning for participants, and support for people to live independently, which is preferable for many people and cheaper for the NDIS.
Almost $50m has been committed to “invest in the NDIA’s ability to detect, respond to, and reduce fraud and non-compliant payments”, and almost $30m to “support the quality and effectiveness of services provided to participants, through improving oversight of services and increasing take up of evidence-based supports”.
The government will also look at leveraging its buying power to get better prices on equipment such as wheelchairs and services like physiotherapy, as well as any incentives that encourage companies to charge at top rates.
The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, told the Guardian’s Australian Politics podcast the government wanted to “make sure that people get the help that the system was designed to provide”.
“But in order to do that, we’ve got to moderate the growth in costs,” he said.
“We’ll work with the sector to try and moderate the growth in those costs without jeopardising the care that people have a reasonable right to expect.”
In April, Shorten revealed the government would target “shoddy therapies that offer little to no value to participants or desperate parents”, and people overcharging or over-servicing.
There are also dozens of investigations under way into fraud within the system.
Lee said the 8% growth target was “really ambitious”.
“We’re keen to actually see how that’s going to work, how they will achieve that,” she said.
“We want to see the scheme sustainable into the future, but we don’t want to create fear for the community – people need to be reassured that their supports are safe.”
The Greens disability spokesperson, Senator Jordon Steele-John, said the community was “blindsided” by the decision to curb spending and that the move had pre-empted the findings of the NDIS review, due later this year.
“Our community was building trust between the federal government and the disability community; instead this government have chosen to take us back to square one,” he said.
Steele-John said the scheme employed 270,000 people directly and more indirectly, and returned $2.25 for every $1 spent.
“In 2020-2021 the economic contribution of the NDIS was $52.4bn. These benefits need to be in any conversation about the cost,” he said.
Shorten’s office was contacted for comment.
