SINGAPORE: Children and adults diagnosed with autism will no longer have an automatic green light into the National Disability Insurance Scheme, the Albanese government says.
Eligibility for the scheme will instead depend on a person’s functional capacity to manage day-to-day living needs.
Health Minister Mark Butler said the “diagnosis gateway” that had allowed people access to a scheme “never designed for them” would be closed in his new iteration of the NDIS.
This will mean that beyond children under nine with less severe autism being diverted from the scheme through the yet-to-commence Thriving Kids program, others in a similar situation would also be denied access or shifted out. They would have to find support services in settings outside the scheme.
NDIS “access lists” were created in the early days of the scheme to help determine eligibility, and these included a medical diagnosis of Level 2 or Level 3 autism. In practice, a diagnosis alone became enough for inclusion.
“We need to return the scheme back to a question of functional capacity,” Mr Butler told the National Press Club. “That’s what (the NDIS) was built on, the idea of people with significantly reduced functional capacity that impacts their day-to-day living needs.
“What (the changes) will mean, though, is that Australians with lower support needs or higher functional capacity, depending on your perspective, will be moved out of the scheme,” he said.
Mr Butler said he would work with the states on developing programs for those with less significant support needs, and $6bn was available under an agreement made at national cabinet to put towards them.
Autism advocates were concerned at how the changes would affect hundreds of thousands of people.
Australian Autism Alliance independent co-chair Jenny Karavolos said “autistic people should not be the shock absorbers for a system the government has not yet fixed”.
“If access to the NDIS is tightened before replacement programs are ready, there is a serious risk people with autism will fall through the cracks,” she said.
“And it then will fall on family members and others, and other systems like health and education, to step in with support, if support is there.”
Autism Awareness Australia chief executive Nicole Rogerson said the autistic community was aware big changes were coming, but remained concerned at how the reforms would roll out in practice.
“There are a lot of proposed changes coming quickly and Thriving Kids is still not up and running,” Ms Rogerson said.
“I pray this doesn’t become the old federal/state fight as people with autism will be the unintended collateral damage.”
Ms Rogerson said she hoped Mr Butler was true to his word about consultation in coming months.
“Measure twice, cut once. We need a scalpel, not a machete,” she said.