New ways of assessing people for NDIS support will add to a series of changes that are slowing growth of the $47 billion scheme but also revoking people’s plans at higher rates.
The federal government will spend $1 billion as it reboots assessments for the National Disability Insurance Scheme after years of argument about who should qualify for support, scaling up the key agencies charged with bringing its spiralling costs under control.
The spending pressures add to recent warnings from economists about the grim future for the nation’s finances, with the Commonwealth on course for a deficit of about $42 billion this financial year.With the budget sliding into years of deficits after two years of surplus, the government is anxious to scale back growth in the NDIS, having been warned that spending was on track to reach $97 billion a year within a decade.
The spending includes $280 million to fund 1000 staff to conduct assessments. There is another $503.5 million to support current NDIS participants, $143.9 million for the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission and $110.4 million to boost fraud-detecting systems. A further $4.5 million in Wednesday’s budget update will go into designing an early intervention pathway for the NDIS so that children with mild autism and developmental delays are more easily identified and
Jeff Smith, from the Disability Advocacy Network Australia, said people were anxious about Labor’s reforms. “That is why it’s important to move more slowly, explain what the changes mean, and build trust in the community,” he said.
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