State of the Nation: Global Perspectives

podcast

Mar 26

Series 3 / Episode 8

Episode 8: Understanding Australia’s National Disability Insurance Scheme

In our latest State of Our Nation podcast, we turned our attention to Australia’s National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), one of the most ambitious social care reforms in recent decades.

Following our earlier conversation on support for older people, this discussion explored how Australia supports working age disabled people and children, and what lessons this holds for England at a critical moment for reform.

To guide us through the system, we were joined by Dr Sam Bennett, Disability Programme Director at the Grattan Institute and former senior leader at the National Disability Insurance Agency. With experience spanning both the UK and Australia, Sam brings a rare combination of policy insight and frontline understanding.

A system built on personalisation

Sam’s career in social care began in local government in London, where he was first exposed to individual budgets. That experience shaped his entire approach.

“The transformative effect of that… the better opportunities and life chances… that completely stuck with me.”

This idea of giving people more control over their support sits at the heart of the NDIS. The scheme provides funding directly to individuals, allowing them to choose the services that best meet their needs. At its best, this approach can be life changing. It shifts power away from systems and towards individuals, enabling people to live more independently and pursue their own goals.

But as Sam makes clear, designing a system around personalisation at national scale is far from straightforward.

What the NDIS set out to fix

Before the NDIS, disability support in Australia was widely seen as fragmented and unfair. Access to services depended heavily on geography, leaving many people without the support they needed.

Sam describes the previous system as “broken… unfair… inequitable… and very poorly funded.”

The NDIS was introduced to address this. It created a single national system, combining responsibilities that in England would sit across multiple local authority services. It also extended support across the life course, covering both children and working age adults. Crucially, it was designed as a universal safety net. As Sam explains, the intention was that anyone who acquires a disability should know that support will be there if they need it.

The scale of this ambition is significant. Today, the scheme supports more than 700,000 people, many of whom previously had little or no access to formal support.

“The fact that it provides this level of coverage… is in and of itself just a great thing.”

Where the model works well

There is no question that the NDIS has transformed lives.

For many people, access to personalised funding has meant greater independence, better access to services, and improved quality of life. It has also brought disability support firmly into public consciousness in Australia, in a way that social care often struggles to achieve in England.

The scheme also benefits from something that has been harder to achieve in the UK: a clear national framework. A single system reduces variation and provides a more consistent offer across the country.

There is also a strong underlying vision. The NDIS is not simply about maintaining people’s health or managing decline. It is about enabling people to live ordinary lives, participate in society, and access the same opportunities as everyone else.

The reality is more complicated

However, the experience of implementing the NDIS has highlighted a number of significant challenges.

One of the most complex issues is eligibility. While the principle sounds simple, in practice it is not always clear who qualifies. This is particularly true for people with mental health conditions.

“How you determine whether someone’s psychosocial disability is permanent… has proved to be pretty challenging.”

The result is that some people receive substantial support, while others with significant needs receive very little or none at all. Sam highlights that at least 150,000 people with severe mental health needs are currently missing out on support entirely. This creates a stark divide between those inside the system and those outside it.

Growth, cost and sustainability

Another major issue is the speed at which the scheme has grown.

The NDIS has expanded far beyond initial expectations, both in the number of people supported and the overall cost. While this reflects previously unmet need, it has also raised concerns about long term sustainability.

“It simply can’t continue to grow that quickly.”

This tension between meeting need and managing public spending is not unique to Australia, but the scale of the NDIS brings it into sharp focus. As a result, the scheme is now entering a new phase of reform, with increasing emphasis on controlling costs while maintaining its core principles.

A system that can be hard to navigate

One of the most striking insights from the conversation is how difficult the system can be for individuals to navigate.

While people are given funding, they are often left to work out for themselves how to use it. This can be overwhelming, particularly for those who are newly disabled or who do not have strong support networks.

“People are handed this piece of paper and then… have to try and work out how to use that funding.”

This reflects a deeper design issue. The NDIS has focused heavily on allocating funding, but less on supporting people to plan how that funding should be used.

As Sam puts it, the planning process itself is “the biggest flaw in the whole scheme.”

Without the right support, choice and control can become a burden rather than an opportunity.

What England can learn

As England prepares for its own conversations about social care reform, there is much to learn from the NDIS.

There are clear positives. A national system can reduce inequality and create a stronger, more visible offer. Personalised support can be genuinely transformative when it works well.

Episode 8 of State of Our Nation: Global Perspectives is out now.

You can find the series on Spotify , Apple Podcasts, or listen to each episode on our website. Just click on the link to the right.

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