In The Media | 29 May 2015

Disability advocates call for Senator Mitch Fifield to be ‘more forthcoming’ over NDIS funding

Disability advocates’ concerns grow as another federal budget passes without specific details about how the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) will be paid for when it is rolled out in full.

Looking at NDIS funding can be misleading.

A 0.5 per cent increase in the Medicare levy introduced last year has been flowing into the Disability Care Australia Fund (DCAF), and that money is being used to fund the scheme as it rolls out.

By the end of this year, it is estimated there will still be fewer than 20,000 people enrolled in the NDIS. When those numbers are low, the DCAF racks up a surplus.

According to calculations by the Centre for Disability Research and Policy (CDRP), that surplus will reach $5.8 billion for the Commonwealth in 2017.

Source: abc.net.au