Breaking: Tough new NDIS rules in overhaul to slash numbers
The federal health minister has announced changes that will see hundreds of thousands of people cut from NDIS projections and crackdown on “lowlifes” rorting taxpayers and people with disabilities.
Eligibility changes and cracking down on “rorters” and “lowlifes” are part of an overhaul of the national scheme that is currently on track for a $13 billion cost blowout, Federal Health and NDIS Minister Mark Butler has revealed.
He said eligibility to access NDIS services will “no longer be based on diagnosis alone”, and instead use “standardised evidence-based assessments of a person’s functional capacity to determine access to the scheme”.
This was expected to see people cut from NDIS access projections, with Butler saying “the number of people on the scheme will be reduced to around 600,000 by the end of the decade instead of growing to well over 900,000 on current projections”.
Each person currently supported by the NDIS would be reassessed; currently, there are 760,000 people on the NDIS.
Butler said he will introduce legislation in the next sitting week to allow for these changes, which he says are “in line with the scheme’s original intent”.
“Access will be based upon a significant reduction in a person’s functional capacity that impacts their day-to-day living,” he said.
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He said it was a “big change” for the NDIS, and an advisory group including the disability community and state and territory governments would be consulted.
Butler detailed the reforms to slow the ballooning costs of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), in a speech to the National Press Club on Wednesday.
From July 1, categories for mandatory registration will also be expanded so more providers have to be registered, Butler announced.
“The NDIS has become a soft target for shonks and rorters, as well as the worst elements of organised crime,” he said.
“Fraud in the NDIS is being perpetrated by lowlifes who are scamming both the taxpayer but more importantly, people with a disability.
“Not every provider needs to be fully registered; we don’t need to monitor retail purchases from a chemist the same way we monitor personal care of vulnerable people.”
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The government will also enrol providers in a digital payment system, and tackle “low quality” third-party intermediaries, which Butler said would reduce spending by about 30 per cent.
Butler said the service is on track for a cost blowout of $13 billion over four years, and “right now the NDIS costs too much and it’s growing too fast”.
He said when parliament returns, he will introduce legislation to “get a grip” on drivers of the cost blowout, including resetting the total cost for social and community participation to prevent a “runaway budget”.
“The NDIS will obviously be accounted for on the budget, but this is bigger than the budget,” Butler said.
“The NDIS is a statement about national values. It’s a measure of our national character. It’s more than a source of support for people with disability.”
The NDIS started in 2013, and one of its architects Martin Laverty said the scheme was not designed to meet the needs of everyone with a disability.
Laverty said that, in 2026, about 93 per cent of NDIS service providers are not registered – registration is not required, and was not originally to cut red tape, but Laverty said the market has changed over time.
Ahead of the announcement, aged care residents were told they would not have to pay extra for help with basic tasks such as showering and dressing after a backdown by the government.
Butler said in response to backlash, the upcoming budget will include $1 billion to change personal care services, including make showering, continence management and dressing free of charge in aged care.
“Dignity in older age, through a world-class aged care system, is the least that our parents and grandparents deserve. We want to deliver that,” he said.
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