Government to Shift NDIS Eligibility to Functional Assessment by 2027

The federal government announced a planned overhaul of the NDIS last month that would determine access by a person's functional capability rather than diagnosis by 2027. Australians with motor neurone disease, a rapidly degenerative illness with no cure, fear they will lose a priority pathway that currently approves support packages within seven days.

The average life expectancy is about 27 months for a person diagnosed with MND.

" "This includes an assessment from someone with expertise in MND, quick decisions for funding, and a package allocation that meets their overwhelming needs," she said. " Todd Johnson, 50, was diagnosed with MND four years ago and is president of MND Victoria. Under the current NDIS priority pathway Johnson was able to quickly access additional support as his disease progressed.

He said the disease needed a "different model and rapid responses" from the system. "People living with MND are losing function every week and the system has to move faster than the disease," Johnson said. When first diagnosed he was still working, fully healthy and walking around.

Now he is in a wheelchair and needs support for getting dressed and even rolling over. Johnson said people in the MND community were "very nervous and quite frightened" about potentially losing both the priority pathway and aspects of their package funding.

"When you consider the pathway might not be there, it's really concerning because a package that's right today might be dangerously inadequate in three months," he said.

Health Minister Mark Butler said the government would be "engaging deeply" with the disability community on the reforms it intends to pursue later in the year. "The thresholds and assessment process for determining substantially reduced functional capacity will be developed in the second half of 2026 based on expert advice from a technical advisory group," he said.

The changes are designed to slow NDIS growth from a projected $70 billion to about $55 billion by 2030.

In addition to stricter eligibility, Labor plans to impose caps on some participant spending and tougher rules for providers to combat fraud and rorting. Abc reported the health minister's comments on the engagement process and the technical advisory group's role.

The federal government has been warned the support system helping people with MND must move "faster than their disease" or caring responsibilities will fall back unfairly onto families.

Advocates and patients have been unable to get assurances that the current priority pathway overseen by staff who specialise in the disease will remain under the overhaul. Currently people diagnosed with MND are able to access the NDIS via that pathway.