A LOCAL group supporting disabled people in the community has raised concerns about the future funding of the National Disability Insurance Scheme after the release of this week’s federal budget.
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Challenge Community Services chief executive officer Barry Murphy said the announcement of a $2.1 billion injection into a special savings account to fund the future of the NDIS was great news for the scheme, but it fell short of the additional money needed to fund it when the rollout was complete.
The $22 billion scheme supports people with a permanent and significant disability, and is designed to provide greater choice and control over how and when they receive that support.
It’s been trialled in certain parts of Australia since 2013, and is due to be rolled out across the New England and North West in July.
Mr Murphy has questioned how the fund will be built on, and sustained, to ensure the future of the NDIS for its participants.
“The issue that concerns me is there is a $4.4 billion shortfall – and more than $5 billion each year after 2019 – in how they organised the funding in the first place,” he said.
“And how much is it going to cost when it’s rolled out?
“Are they going to take a lot of people out of the disability support pension over time? It depends how they do this and who they are looking at.
“While I believe this is a really good start, I am concerned about the impact of what some of those future savings are going to be.”
The federal government has confirmed the $2.1 billion announced this week is from savings from the welfare budget, with a crackdown on eligibility for the disability support pension and a freeze on carbon tax compensation for all new welfare recipients.
Mr Murphy said he was worried any shortfall in the NDIS would have to be funded by general revenue and borrowings, “and that’s a bit scary”.
“The devil is in the detail and I am interested to see what the finer details are,” he said.
In terms of other assistance for those with a disability, Mr Murphy welcomed the creation of a youth jobs path program which will see young people with a disability benefit from industry-endorsed pre-employment training, paid internships and wage subsidies.
A three-year extension on the wage subsidisation for Australian Disability Enterprises in the wake of the development of a new wage assessment tool was also a positive step, he said.
