Today, the Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), the Hon Linda Reynolds CSC, released the Quarterly Report to disability ministers Q4 2020-21.
The Quarterly Report is a detailed report on Scheme performance from 1 April 2021 to 30 June 2021.
It contains a wide range of NDIS data, and provides commentary about the Scheme’s progress, successes and challenges.
It also meets the requirements under Section 174 of the National Disability Insurance Act 2013 to provide public information about the progress of the National Disability Insurance Scheme.
Further analysis of financial sustainability challenges
From page 95 you can read about the Scheme’s financial performance compared to the Federal Government’s 2021-22 Portfolio Budget Statements (PBS), the 2017 Productivity Commission (PC) projection and the latest scheme projections (costs and participant numbers).
Progress against the Participant Service Charter and Service Improvement Plan
Last year the NDIA introduced a Participant Service Charter to explain what participants can expect when they deal with the NDIA, as well as the Participant Service Improvement Plan that outlines all the improvements the NDIA will make.
From page 50 you can track our progress against these commitments to improve our service.
Progress on consultation
The report includes an update about NDIA consultation projects, including: Reviewing the Early Childhood Approach; Interventions for Children on the Autism Spectrum; Supporting NDIS Participants to Pursue their Home and Living Goals: and Empowering NDIS participants’ Decisions (page 21).
Improving our engagement
Following the consultation process and the decision to not proceed with Independent Assessments, this report talks about our commitment to engage better with people with lived experience of disability and the disability sector.
Work has begun to develop a co-design framework to discuss and address Scheme challenges and develop a new person-centred model for NDIS assessments (from page 5).
Participant experiences and outcomes
Participants continue to have positive outcomes the longer they are in the Scheme. Results and insights from participants who have been in the Scheme for at least two years and those who have been in the Scheme for at least 4 years are included from page 37.
We continue to support our participants through the COVID-19 pandemic. You can read about this on page 22 and page 92.
Tackling fraud
We are committed to further strengthening our work to investigate and prosecute instances of fraud alongside the Australian Federal Police and Services Australia (page 20).
Read stories about participants all over Australia
There are seven stories in this Quarterly Report that show how participants are achieving their goals with NDIS support. The stories include:
- World champion blind Para-cyclist Kieran, has been training to compete at the Tokyo Olympics, and next year’s Birmingham Commonwealth Games (page 24).
- Keen runner, Emma, who is managing her MS symptoms with NDIS support, while continuing to do the things she values, including having a career, enjoying her family, and exercising (page 71).
- Rosie, who is already the New South Wales women’s Under 20 champion in Paralympic shotput and has her sights firmly set on competing at the Virtus Global Games happening in Vichy, France, in 2023 (page 105).
Learn about the continuing growth of the NDIS
You can find lots of detailed information about the Scheme in the Quarterly Report. For example:
- At 30 June 2021, 466,619 participants were receiving NDIS support
- 72,258 of these participants were children aged 0-6 (16 per cent)
- 245,274 NDIS participants are receiving government support for the first time
- 18,352 new participants received an approved plan this quarter
- A high proportion of children aged 0-6 years entered the Scheme in the quarter (6,386) which is consistent with the previous quarter (34.8 per cent of new participants this quarter and 35 per cent in the March 2021 quarter)
- 13.5 per cent of participants who received a plan in the quarter had a Psychosocial Disability, compared to 10.2 per cent in the previous quarters combined.
- 9.3 per cent identified as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders
- 10.8 per cent identified as from a Culturally and Linguistically Diverse community
- 2.1 per cent were Australians living in remote and very remote areas
- The Scheme continues to work hard to reduce the amount of participants living in residential aged care. The Department of Health data shows:
- The number of people in residential aged care under the age of 65 years has reduced from 6,135 at 31 December 2017 to 4,105 at 31 March 2021 (a 33 per cent decrease).
- Fewer people under the age of 65 years are entering residential aged care – 517 people under the age of 65 years entered in the December 2017 quarter, compared with 164 in the March 2021 quarter (a 68 per cent decrease).
- The NDIA will work with the disability community to address significant challenges facing the Scheme. Financial sustainability pressures remain:
- Plan budgets are higher for participants in high socio-economic areas compared to participants in lower socio-economic areas. $51,300, compared to $55,700 for participants in the highest socio-economic decile, a difference of 9 per cent.
- For participants who were in the Scheme on 30 June 2017, there has been a reported decline in functional capacity. 38 per cent of these participants had a high level of function on 30 June 2017, compared to 21 per cent on 30 June 2021.
- Conversely, participants with a reported low level of function have increased over the same period, from 23 per cent to 35 per cent.
- The average payment per participant has continued to increase at 11.8 per cent per annum in the three years to 30 June 2021, which is an unsustainable level of increase.
- Total payments to providers for participant supports increased to $6.6 billion in the last quarter of 2020-21, which is a 33 per cent increase in total participant costs from the last quarter of 2019-20.
Explore NDIS data
Read the full report, including detailed information about the NDIS, participants, providers and the market.
The Agency launched an accessible interactive data tool in December 2020. The tool lets you apply multiple drop-down filters to each data set. Data in the tool is at 30 September 2020.
If you are interested in NDIS data, sign up to the Data and Insights newsletter and be the first to know about Quarterly Reports, data releases and relevant events.
If you have any questions about the Quarterly Report, please contact the National Contact Centre on 1800 800 110 or email your questions to the Scheme Actuary mailbox.