The future of the NDIS

The NDIS will complete its full national roll-out by 2019/20, with the government setting up the NDIS Savings Fund in order to be able to fully fund its implementation, as there is a projected shortfall of $4.4 billion from 2019/20 onwards, above the initial 0.5 percentage point increase in the Medicare levy to cover the cost of the NDIS.

An additional $2.1 billion will be directed to the Savings Fund, above the initial $162.4 million allocated to it last year, with the Mid-Year Economic and Financial Outlook 2015/16 (MYEFO). This ‘top-up’ funding will be sourced from reduced transition costs over the next five years, until the NDIS’ full implementation, but primarily from so-called efficiencies derived from welfare expenditure.