"The 2026 Budget and recent NDIS reforms should be a wake-up call for participants, families, therapists, and providers.

The biggest thing people need to understand is this:

The NDIS is moving harder toward evidence, legislation, and Section 34 “reasonable and necessary” criteria. That means reports now matter more than ever.

• A lot of people still think if you’ve had supports before, you automatically keep them. That is no longer a safe assumption.

• Every support recommendation should clearly explain:

• the functional impairment

• why the support is necessary

• why it is beyond ordinary parental responsibility or mainstream supports

• how it relates directly to the participant’s permanent disability

• why it provides value for money and improves outcomes

If reports don’t properly justify supports against Section 34, people are going to start losing funding during reviews. That’s not fearmongering — that’s literally the direction the government has publicly stated it is moving toward.

This is also why Functional Capacity Assessments are becoming so important. They are supposed to bring together all the evidence from psychology, OT, behaviour support, medical specialists, schools, carers, etc, and clearly link recommendations back to legislation.

And honestly, even though this will be horrible news for some people, I think participants with profound, severe, lifelong disabilities may actually end up better off in the long run.

Why?

Because the original purpose of the NDIS was to support people with substantial and permanent functional impairment. When funding gets spread too broadly without strong evidence or legislative justification, the whole system becomes unstable and participants with the highest support needs are the ones who suffer most.

This should not become “disabled people vs disabled people.” That helps nobody.

There is a massive difference between:

• temporary support needs

• mild functional impacts

• psychosocial or mainstream system gaps

AND

• people who require lifelong supervision

• intensive behavioural support

• complex care

• communication assistance

• 24/7 support

That distinction is uncomfortable, but it is also part of how the legislation was written.

People should absolutely be able to debate this respectfully without being attacked. The discussion isn’t about who is “worthy” as a person. It’s about whether supports meet the legal threshold of permanent and substantial disability under the NDIS framework.

The 2026 Budget and recent NDIS reforms should be a wake-up call for participants, families, therapists, and providers."