NDIS overhaul: Mark Butler outlines plans to cut growth, reduce participants to 600,000 under major reforms

Around 160,000 people receiving support from the National Disability Insurance Scheme will lose it by 2030, under a long-awaited plan to rein in growth of the massive taxpayer-funded scheme.

At the National Press Club Health Minister Mark Butler has detailed an overhaul of the NDIS which means it still grow each year, but “instead of costing more than $70 billion in 2030, taxpayers will spend around $55 billion”.

“The NDIS was originally intended to support around 410,000 people with a disability. Today, there are 760,000 people on the scheme,” Butler said.

“While new eligibility rules need to be worked through, our initial modelling will see the number of people on the scheme reduce to around 600,000 by the end of the decade, instead of growing to well over 900,000.”

The Health Minister has also confirmed that every person on the NDIS will be reassessed and shifted off the program if they don’t meet new eligibility criteria.

“Over a period of time, over the coming months, we will work on an … assessment tool that was clearly the expectation of the NDIS.

“With the support of a technical advisory group, with the participation of the community and with states, I would expect that to be in place for 2028.

“That will govern entry to the scheme, in my expectation, from 1 January 2028 and will be the tool that governs reassessment of people, which happens at the end of their plans.”

The government will also scrap subsidies for private health cover of Australians aged over 65, instead diverting the taxpayer funding into its aged care commitments in the May budget.