2022-23 Federal Budget: What’s in it for the NDIS and Aged Care?

November 9th 2022

The federal government’s 2022-23 budget, handed down on 25 October, includes a number of big funding announcements that will affect people living with disability and older Australians in aged care.

Let’s have a look at some of the highlights:

Disability services and securing the NDIS

Total funding for the NDIS is projected to reach $166.6 billion over four years. This is an increase of $8.8 billion.

Fraud Fusion Taskforce

The Government will create a cross-agency “fraud fusion taskforce” to investigate fraud and serious non-compliance. The NDIA will join forces with law enforcement, regulatory and intelligence agencies.

The budget has $137.7 million earmarked for this taskforce.

Adding 300+ permanent NDIS staff

It will also invest $158.2 million to hire 380 additional permanent staff for the NDIS in order to support people living with disability.

Faster and fairer outcomes

You may have heard in the news that there are thousands of NDIS participants locked in legal proceedings at the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT). One participant interviewed by ABC shares that he has been dealing with the AAT for two years.

A $5.8 million Alternative Dispute Resolution Pilot will be launched to resolve the AAT backlog and achieve fairer, faster and better outcomes for NDIS participants.

An additional $6.6 million budget is provided for participants to access advocacy and legal assistance.

Disability Advocacy

Additional funding of $21.2 million will be provided over three years for the NDIS Appeals program. This is to help organisations support people with disability who are seeking a review of an NDIS decision. This budget is separate from the $6.6 million advocacy budget mentioned previously.

Reviewing the NDIS

An independent NDIS Review will also be launched ($18.1 m over two years) to create a roadmap for improving the NDIS, to ensure future generations will receive the benefit of the Scheme. You can subscribe to updates on the NDIS review through their website.

$5 million for autism spectrum disorder

The Government has also announced more than $5 million in funding over 2022-23 for autism research, early intervention services and a national autism strategy.

Better aged care

The Government is investing $2.5 billion over four years in aged care, with a commitment to increase average care minutes per resident and mandate that facilities have a registered nurse on site 24/7.

Supporting the workforce

The Government supported a pay rise for aged care workers through its submission on the Aged Care Work Value Case to the Fair Work Commission.

The Government will also establish a national registration scheme ($3.6m) for personal care workers, while $9.9m will establish an Aged Care Complaints Commissioner and $38.7m will establish an Inspector-General of Aged Care.

COVID-19 support

A total of $810.2 million is earmarked to support aged care providers with direct costs through reimbursement due to COVID-19 outbreaks in both residential and home care

Reforms to in-home aged care

Reforms to in-home aged care, which includes Home Care Packages, will start from 1 July 2024, pushed later from an earlier announcement of 2023.

The Budget includes $23.1m for research and consultation to deliver an equitable program. You can read the Discussion Paper published by the Department of Health and Aged Care here.