A4's Co-convenor wrote to the NDIS and the responsible Ministers with questions about the changes to the NDIS that came into effect on 10/10/2024. Many people feel the NDIS's descriptions and explanations were very confusing.
The Acting Deputy CEO, Service Design and Improvement replied on 2/2/2025. There is a link to the emails below.
Sadly, the response is not very helpful.
One of the big changes is the two new lists that are meant to list things that the NDIS can fund, and things that it cannot fund. There are many problems with this approach.
- the lists are not related to disability types so the list indicates that "wheelchairs and motorised mobility devices" are supports even though few autistic NDIS participants will need them
- the list says early intervention for children via speech and occupational therapist are funded even though the NDIS has no evidence that these are "evidence-based" for autistic NDIS participants/children - see https://a4.org.au/node/2674. The email adds physiotherapy and psychology - there may be some evidence for some psychology services.
- many things are on neither list. Some of those things are appear on a new list of replacements for things on the "In list". Though they don't say it explicitly, there is no process for asking whether things on none of the lists are support - it appears that you just have to buy them and submit the invoice and see if they are accepted ... but even then, they could decide later that they are not and then demand the money back.
The lists were not co-designed; in fact they were the opposite. Most disability representative advised that the lists were not correct but NDIS officials ignored advice from the disability sector and published its lists anyway. So that the government broke its promise to taxpayers and parliament that these lists would be codesigned.
The email response (link below) does point out that funded supports "must be related to a participant’s disability" and "must be likely to be effective and work for the participant", and more (section 34(1) of the NDIS Act 2013 ... as the law requires.
A big change for 2025 is that the NDIS expects many supports, especially for young children, will be provided via so-called Foundational Supports. But these simply don't exist ... and the disability sector cannot have confidence that they will work, or even ever exist. See https://a4.org.au/node/2685 or https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-02-01/ndis-foundational-supports-analysis/104824444
A4 feels that the current situation is unacceptable.
emails: https://a4.org.au/sites/default/files/20250102_FW__problem_understanding_NDIS_reform.pdf