Families face being thousands of dollars worse off as Labor cuts NDIS lifeline

On Wednesday, health minister Mark Butler announced that around 160,000 people are expected to be removed from the national disability insurance scheme by 2030.

The $50bn scheme’s growth rate will be brought down to just 2% every year until 2030 in an effort to curb annual plan inflation and produce billions in savings. To get there, eligibility rules will be tightened, especially for children under 18.

For a lot of participants, there’s confusion over what the new system will look like, who’ll be eligible, and how it will work for kids, for adults with autism, for people in rural communities. According to a mother with an autistic child, “They haven’t specified what the decision will be based on… they haven’t mentioned other disabilities or support needs within those disabilities. Nothing has been detailed whatsoever.”

News outlets and many disability organizations have expressed criticism of Mark Butler’s decision on the matter, stating that some of what Butler announced is long overdue. NDIS architect Martin Laverty even offers blunt assessment of scheme’s original design, describing the design as rushed and the detailed examination of the definition of who’s eligible, and what the scheme should fund are rules never included. Greens’ disability spokesperson Jordon Steele-John also remarked that based on this very specific budget cut, Labor has decided that disabled people and their families are an easy target.