What is NDIS and how does it work?
The National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) is an Australian Government program for individuals with a disability designed to provide a personalised plan and associated funding that helps them access the needed supports and services based on their level of functional capacity. As of 2021-22, the NDIS funding was to the tune of approximately $30 billion, catering to over 550,000 participants.
How is the NDIS supporting housing specific to the needs of the people with a disability?
Until 2015, Disability Accommodation was provided by State Government agencies with grant-based joint funding for services and supports from the Commonwealth. Over the years and mainly through the NDIS, this grants-based funding is being transformed to a market-based system where individuals with disabilities control their own funding through their individualised NDIS plans.
Creating housing is one of the most important tasks for the NDIS. It is especially important for the young people living in aged care and the adults with disability living with ageing parents. More than 6,200 young people are living in aged care, with 2,000 young people entering aged care annually. In some parts of the country, young people occupy more than 20% of all aged care places.
The NDIS has an annual recurrent budget of $700 million for the Specialised Disability Accommodation (SDA) payment policy. This housing funding is designed only for people under 65 with very high disability support needs. This equates to around 6% of NDIS participants – 28,000 people.