PWDA
PEOPLE with Disability Australia has warned the Federal Government’s NDIS overhaul will cause widespread harm, saying hundreds of thousands of people risk being pushed into isolation, crisis and segregation if they lose essential supports.
The warning follows new government modelling showing more than 241,000 existing NDIS participants are expected to be pushed off the scheme within four years of new eligibility rules taking effect. By 2031, almost 350,000 fewer people are projected to be on the NDIS than previously forecast.
PWDA Acting CEO Megan Spindler-Smith said the figures had devastated the disability community.
“People with disability are overwhelmed looking at these numbers and wondering how they will fill the gaps,” Spindler-Smith said.
“We are wondering how we will survive, whether we will lose the supports that help us leave the house, keep working, raise children, stay safe or simply get through the day.
“The Government keeps talking about sustainability. But people with disability are hearing something else entirely: that hundreds of thousands of us are expected to make do without essential supports.”
PWDA said cuts to social and community participation supports were expected to deliver the largest saving under the reforms, accounting for $13.2 billion over four years.
Spindler-Smith said those supports were often misunderstood.
“A lot of people hear ‘social and community participation’ and think recreation or lifestyle funding,” Spindler-Smith said.
“These are actually supports that allow people to leave home safely, get to work, attend university, maintain relationships, parent their children or avoid becoming completely isolated.
“It is not an overstatement to say that this directly takes away from the safe and quality life every Australian deserves.”
PWDA said one of the deepest concerns was that Parliament was being asked to pass sweeping reforms before replacement systems and safeguards were in place.
“People are being told there will be foundational supports and more inclusive communities in the future,” Spindler-Smith said.
“But right now those systems do not exist and we have no idea what they will deliver, where they’ll be available and who will be able to access them.
“You cannot cut supports first and hope options will be available later.”
Spindler-Smith said Parliament must not rush legislation that would fundamentally reshape disability support in Australia.
“This Bill is deciding who gets support, who gets left behind and what kind of lives disabled people are allowed to have,” they said.
