Ideas@TheCentre
NDIS cost blowout has begun
The Senate Inquiry into the government’s National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) legislation is due to report in March, but the government is starting to buckle under the pressure and is looking at expanding eligibility for the scheme to include some people aged over 65 years.
A scare campaign being led by special interest group National Seniors is claiming: ’At 64 you're covered for the rest of your life (by the NDIS); at 65 you're out on the street.’
While someone who acquires a disability aged 64 years or younger will be able to stay on the NDIS for their entire lives, the second part of the National Seniors’ claim is manifestly false. If someone acquires a disability aged over 65 years they will not be ‘out on the street,’ but will receive disability supports through the aged care system.
With the government ready to spend around $22 billion a year on the NDIS when it is fully operational in 2018-19, some people are afraid they are going to miss out on the NDIS spending spree as it passes by.
The government is responding to the pressure, and is considering scrapping the 65 years cut off age and looking at other options. In The New Leviathan: A National Disability Insurance Scheme, I highlighted that changing the eligibility age was a serious risk to the long-term financial viability of the NDIS.
The $22 billion a year figure covers 441,000 people under the age of 65, and not one soul older than 65, of whom around 600,000 have a severe or profound disability.
Given that the NDIS costs on average around $50,000 per person, with some people receiving NDIS funded services valued at $250,000+ per year, expanding the scheme beyond the current boundaries will cost hundreds of millions, if not billions, more than current estimates.
The NDIS cost blowout has begun.
Andrew Baker is a Policy Analyst at The Centre for Independent Studies and author of The New Leviathan: A National Disability Insurance Scheme.
