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Fewer people with psychosocial disability may be added to the NDIS in the future, as the minister flags that the government expects to divert 27,000 people to outside supports in the next four years, who would have otherwise joined the scheme.
Key points:
- The government forecasts 27,000 fewer people are expected to join the NDIS over four years under planned reforms
- The NDIS minister says people with psychosocial disability could be better served by programs outside the scheme
- He stressed that no current NDIS participants were being removed from the scheme
Stressing that current participants would not be removed from the scheme, NDIS Minister Bill Shorten said the program should not serve as a catch-all for disability, and that some people with psychosocial disability could be better supported outside the NDIS.
"We believe that if we can set up supports outside the scheme in the area of psychosocial support, maybe not everyone needs to go on the scheme who might have otherwise gone on the scheme," Mr Shorten told ABC Radio.
"We estimate as a result of reforms that the initial projection could be lowered by the number of people on the scheme by 27,000 [by 2026-2027].
"The reality is NDIS can't look after every disabled person in Australia, but at the moment I think there is insufficient supports outside, and that is not just a comment about the states — federal departments, local government, we can do more."
Mr Shorten said better community mental health services could reduce the need for some people who do not need full-time support under the NDIS from having to use the scheme.
The government is reviewing the NDIS as it seeks to contain the projected ballooning cost to run the scheme, which was forecast to increase by 13.8 per cent each year.
The NDIS was forecast to grow from about 600,000 participants to about 851,500 in four years' time, but the government expects that growth would be curbed to about 824,300 under its proposed reforms.
Mr Shorten said that adjustment was expected if reforms resulted in better supports in community mental health and employment opportunities.
Service gaps remain for psychosocial disability
The creation of the NDIS almost a decade ago led to significant gaps in services for people with psychosocial disability, who had trouble accessing the scheme, but whose previous support services were either folded into the NDIS or ceased to be funded by governments that expected those programs to be covered by the federal scheme.
Additional streams were established to make the scheme more accessible for people with psychosocial disability — an umbrella term for severe forms of conditions such as schizophrenia, post-traumatic stress disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder — but the National Disability Insurance Agency argued at the time that the NDIS was never intended to function as a replacement for mental health support services.
The Productivity Commission estimated in 2020 that as many as 154,000 people who need psychosocial support are unable to access the services they need under current policy settings.
In a submission to the government's NDIS review, Mental Health Australia wrote that it was a priority for the government to clarify the scheme's role for people with psychosocial disability.
"People with psychosocial disability have faced a number of barriers in accessing the scheme and implementing appropriate NDIS supports," the submission reads.
"The transition to the NDIS has also created significant challenges for the psychosocial support workforce and service providers both within and outside of the NDIS."
The peak body has advocated for governments at all levels to ensure there are no gaps in service for people with psychosocial disability, including funding early intervention programs both through and outside the NDIS.
The federal government is seeking to save $15.3 billion in growth of the scheme over four years, though its costs are still projected to grow.
Its review into the NDIS is due in October.