On Tuesday 9 May 2023, the Federal Government delivered its latest budget. The government reaffirmed its support for the scheme and committed a total of $42.1 billion with an additional $910 million over four years to improve the NDIS, and support and safeguard people with a disability and the scheme. In the area of disability supports, a key theme was ensuring that services are sustainable and work effectively for people with disability, their families and carers.
To achieve this, the budget focused on two key areas:
- Improving disability systems and services for the future
- Getting the NDIS back on track.
Improving disability systems and services for the future
| Getting the NDIS back on track The Government affirmed that the NDIS is here to stay and is working to get the NDIS back on track and rebuilding trust with participants, their families and carers. The Budget commits a total of approximately $910 million over five years to improve the effectiveness and delivery of the NDIS. To get the NDIS back on track, the Government:
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Unfortunately, we don’t yet know the detail around how most of the measures will work in practice or the implications for people with disability, their families, carers or the sector.
In our opinion, while the sustainability of the NDIS is critically important, any changes to curb spending must be done in a manner that will not significantly negatively impact people with disability.
We hope that the outcomes of the NDIS Review, to be announced in October this year, will provide greater clarity around the shape of the scheme in the future.