Australia’s $42 Billion NDIS Has Grown ‘Too Big, Too Fast’: Grattan Institute

A report into the NDIS has found costs are blowing out, despite only a small percentage of disabled people receiving support.

A wheelchair symbol on the back of a van in Albany, Western Australia, on Sept. 3, 2024. Susan Mortimer/The Epoch Times

The new report from the Grattan Institute says the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) has “grown too big, too fast,” amid concerns other disability services were being sidelined by the behemoth scheme.

The NDIS cost Australian taxpayers $42 billion (US $27.4 billion) in the 2023-24 financial year, and is expected to cost more than $58 billion by 2028.

“Growing at about 24 percent per year on average from 2020-2024, it is one of the fastest-growing pressures on the federal budget and risks crowding out other services that could benefit all disabled Australians,” the report states.

Blame is being placed on a list of design flaws and governance failures “baked in from the start,” according to, “Saving the NDIS: How to rebalance disability services to get better results.”

In 2011, the Productivity Commission estimated the NDIS would serve 490,000 Australians, but that number has now reached more than 700,000, and is expected to hit a million by 2034.

And for the massive cost of the NDIS—which exceeded the national aged care spend in the 2024-25 budget—only a small percentage of Australians with disabilities are able to access services.

An NDIS worker earns from a minimum $70 per hour (pdf) for support work, to a maximum $253 an hour depending on service and location.

Around 5.5 million Australians have a disability, but according to government data updated in March 2025, about 717,001 people have so far qualified for NDIS support—meaning 13 percent of people with disabilities are being served by the program.

Nonetheless, the cost of the NDIS keeps on ballooning.

Grattan Institute disability program director Sam Bennett said it had got to a point where other forms of support were lacking.

“The problem is the NDIS has become the only game in town, you either get an NDIS package, or you get minimal mainstream services,” he said.

A symbol indicates disability parking in Albany, Western Australia, on April 22, 2024. Susan Mortimer/The Epoch Times

People who could receive support in other ways are, essentially, being pushed towards the NDIS where they stay long term.

“Disabled Australians have an incentive to try to get into the NDIS—and once people get in, they tend not to leave,” Bennett said.

Moreover, Labor was expected to address the issue by limiting yearly growth of the program to 8 percent a year, and to also fund new support services outside the NDIS by July 1, 2025 in conjunction with the states.

Bennett says this has not happened.

An NDIS representative told The Epoch Times the program was providing for numerous Australians.

“The NDIS provides opportunity and choice for hundreds of thousands of Australians and we’re making it stronger for future generations,” a spokesperson said.

“The scheme is ahead of schedule to meet sustainability targets as reforms help participants spend to their budget and integrity measures deliver results.”

Meanwhile, the Grattan report also suggested four steps for the Albanese government: create firmer boundaries for the scheme, fairer funding, create promised alternatives to the NDIS, and redo the National Disability Agreement to increase transparency.

The Institute believes its suggestions could reduce NDIS payments by around $12 billion over the next decade, with further savings of $34 billion.

“Saving the NDIS is not a question of spending more money—our analysis shows the problem lies in how existing funding is allocated,” Bennett said.