Up to half of the groups who advocate for people with a disability in NSW are facing being wiped out by funding cuts, as the state government hands over responsibility for disability services to the Commonwealth, new figures show.
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About 50 NSW groups advocating for people with disabilities receive $13 million a year from the state government. They campaign on issues such as making transport hubs and buildings accessible or about the high rate of preventable deaths for people with an intellectual disability in the state's health system.
But from next July that money will cease as the state government transfers its disability services spending to a national scheme that gives some people with a disability direct funding support but not for the groups who advocate on their behalf.
"With the state government announcing a surplus of [$4.5 billion this year] it would seem ridiculous they can't find $13 million to support the inclusion of people with a disability," said Serena Ovens, the convenor of the NSW Disability Advocacy Alliance, which estimates it will close once funding ceases next year.
"What they're saying is 20 per cent of the NSW population who have a disability are not worth supporting."
Figures provided to Fairfax Media by the Alliance, which represents a little less than half of the state's advocacy organisations, show an estimated 40 per cent of advocacy organisations depend totally on state government funding either for their entire budgets or advocacy work.
"One hundred per cent of our money [for advocacy] comes from the NSW government. If that stops we will have no options to continue," said Jim Simpson from the Council for Intellectual Disability, which has been representing people with an intellectual disability in the state for 60 years.
"People with an intellectual disability will basically be silenced; it's not easy for them to speak up or enter public debate.
Another 20 per cent of groups derive two-thirds of their budget from state government grants; the remainder up to one-third.
Disability and Aged Information Services, the only independent service between Grafton and the Tweed referring people to support programs, says though only one-third of its funding is from the state government it expects to shut down next year.
"[At this stage] all of our state projects will finish," said chief executive Joanne McLean.
Ms McLean said that was despite the organisation fielding record requests for help amid major policy changes. "We're talking about people perhaps with lower literacy levels and certainly who are less connected to the internet and other resources or able to do their own research," she said.
The state government is diverting disability funding to the National Disability Insurance Scheme, an initiative of the previous federal Labor government.
The Commonwealth will fund $20 million for advocacy groups for the first three years of the NDIS.
But that sum is to be divided among all states and territories, which advocacy groups say is a major decrease and only temporary. That means state government funding is crucial to their survival.
The NSW Disability Services Minister Ray Williams says the state government will provide about $3.2 billion in annual funding for people with a disability in NSW under the NDIS, an amount roughly matched by the federal government.
"[Collectively this is] providing a record $6.5 billion for people with disability in NSW," he said.
Mr Williams said the state government had provided $1.5 million to assist advocacy organisations transition to the NDIS and an additional $1.7 million in the first year of the national program to manage additional demand for disability services.
