Nearly a quarter of the fraud-plagued National Disability Insurance Scheme’s budget is being spent on carers accompanying disabled people during daily activities like dog walks, café visits, haircuts, and trips to the movies.
Social and community NDIS support cost taxpayers $11.6 billion in 2025 – 23.6% of the $48.9 billion in total payments – with registered providers able to charge $70 per hour for social activities on weekdays, $99 on Saturdays, and $127 on Sundays, with rates of up to $234 on public holidays and for remote areas.
The NDIS also spent $10.3 billion on payments to participants with autism last year, is more expensive than Medicare, and is set to overtake defence spending if it is not wound back. About 15% of six-year-old boys are on the NDIS, and 43% of all 761,442 participants have been diagnosed with autism.
David Cullen, the NDIS’s first chief economist, told the AFR social and community support was the “obvious place” for the government to start as it seeks to rein in spending on the scheme, and said there was too little oversight on the category.
“It’s one of the easiest places in the scheme to rort,” he said.
“The agency really has no idea what participants are buying with the funds provided by taxpayers. In determining a participant’s budget, the agency doesn’t ask: is this thing worth doing for this person? You’re not allowed to ask that question.
“They don’t ever really check with the participants if they feel like they’re happy either. It’s quite sad.
“The fundamental problem in the scheme is that there is no concept of value for money. As a result, everything is growing.”
Mr Cullen’s comments come amid growing public anger about NDIS fraud and waste, with One Nation leader Pauline Hanson on Saturday announcing she would ask the Senate to establish an inquiry into the scheme.
“Reaching $50 billion a year, the NDIS has turned into a monster that will bankrupt our country if not reined in. If the scheme isn’t made sustainable, the severely disabled that we should be helping will end up being neglected,” she said.
Header image credit: NDIS.
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