Disability

The NDIS provides ‘reasonable and necessary supports’ to help people who have a ‘significant and permanent’ disability.

To be eligible for the NDIS, you must be under the age of 65 and meet residency status requirements. In addition, individuals must:

• have a disability related to a permanent impairment, or a psychosocial disability caused by a permanent impairment
• have a permanent impairment that significantly impacts their daily life and ability to carry out everyday tasks
• be likely to require NDIS supports for their lifetime.

The NDIS also provides supports through the early childhood approach to children younger than 9 with disability or developmental delay.

More information on eligibility can be found at:

• Am I eligible | NDIS
• What are the NDIS eligibility requirements | NDIS
  
  

The DSP is a means-tested income support payment which assists recipients to meet the everyday costs of living. It can be accessed by people who are aged 16 and over but under Age Pension age (at claim) and who have reduced capacity to work because of their disability.

This includes those who:

• are permanently blind
• have a physical, intellectual or psychiatric condition resulting in functional impairment making the person unable to work for 15 hours or more per week for the next 2 years due to their disability or medical condition
• are unable, as a result of impairment, to undertake a training activity which would equip them for work within the next 2 years.

DSP recipients are encouraged to participate in employment where they have the capacity to, and can gain from the benefits of working, including improved wellbeing. 

More information on eligibility can be found at: Disability Support Pension - Services Australia.

People with a carer who receives a payment

The disability flags include people with disability who are being cared for by someone receiving the Centrelink Carer Payment or Carer Allowance. The person being cared for is called a ‘caree’.

These carer payments are income-tested supports for people who give additional daily care to a person with disability where the care needs are constant, meaning it takes up a large amount of time and prevents the carer from working full time.

The carer needs to meet residence and income eligibility. 

More information on eligibility can be found at:

• Who can get Carer Payment - Carer Payment - Services Australia
• Who can get Carer Allowance - Carer Allowance - Services Australia

People who access Centrelink disability supports

To be eligible for Centrelink disability supports such as mobility support, a person must meet eligibility criteria: 

• needing help with travel costs, study or looking for work and have a disability, injury or illness that limit capacity to work or use public transport;
• be 16 years or over and meet other age requirements; and
• be an Australian resident.

More information on eligibility can be found at:

• Who can get Mobility Allowance - Mobility Allowance - Services Australia
• Who can get Youth Disability Supplement - Youth Disability Supplement - Services Australia

Some people are eligible for more than one government disability support.

For example, they may get the DSP and be a NDIS participant.

We have reported our results for:

• people with any government disability supports;
• NDIS participants;
• DSP recipients; and
• people who access both NDIS and DSP supports (referred to as NDIS participants receiving the DSP).

It was important to our inclusive research team to report on the findings for each of these groups because of the unique issues that can affect their access to services. For example, the DSP provides a maximum of $1,200.90 per fortnight (for a single person as of March 2026) with eligibility limits on additional income. NDIS participants receiving the DSP may experience greater financial hardship than NDIS participants with other sources of income.

Males and females are about equally represented among people with disability. However, people receiving government disability supports are more likely to be male. This means our results do not reflect the experiences of females with disability as well as we would like. 

There are a few reasons why our disability flags don’t capture as many females in the data. The main reason is that females are less likely to access the NDIS compared to males. It is expected that as our disability flags continue to improve, more females will be included. 

There is also a call to address the reasons for the lower female NDIS participation rate.

Older Australians are more likely to have disability, however older people with disability are under-represented in the group of people with government disability supports. This is because of the eligibility criteria for some government disability supports. For example, people over age 65 are not eligible to join the NDIS. DSP recipients who become eligible for the Age Pension at age 67 may transfer to this scheme, and those who do so are not included in the group of people with government disability supports. 

It is expected that as our disability flags continue to improve, that older people will be better represented by future flags.

People from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds are not well represented by the disability flags because they are under-represented in government disability supports. Some people from CALD backgrounds, such as recently arrived immigrants, may not be eligible for government disability supports like the NDIS if they are not permanent residents or have not lived in Australia long enough. The National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) have a Cultural and Linguistic Diversity Strategy 2024–2028 to address the under-representation of people from CALD backgrounds in the NDIS (NDIS 2026).

Lesbian Gay Bisexual Trans Intersex Queer and Asexual Plus (LGBTIQA+) people with disability experience unique and compounding forms of disadvantage. However, current administrative data do not reliably capture information about this diverse community, which limits our ability to report on their experiences.

Gender‑diverse people are one subgroup affected by this gap. Our analysis did not have access to adequate data on gender identity, which means people with diverse gender identities are not visible in the findings. 

Another subgroup is people with diverse sexual identities. Sexual identity is not routinely collected in administrative data, so we cannot explore outcomes based on sexuality.

Improving how data collections record sex, gender and sexuality will help us better reflect the experiences of groups who face disadvantage related to these characteristics. The Disability Royal Commission has highlighted the violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation experienced by LGBTIQA+ people with disability (Hill et al. 2022).

Hospital data from the Northern Territory (NT) and Western Australia (WA) were not available for this project, meaning people from these jurisdictions could not be included in our analysis. Because both regions have distinct geographic and demographic characteristics, and because these factors intersect with disability in important ways, the absence of NT and WA data limits how our findings can be interpreted. This exclusion should be considered when using the results to inform policy or processes that may have national implications.

‘Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with disability experience unique form of “intersectional discrimination” and social inequality that is an interaction of discrimination that is both Aboriginal and Torres Straits Islander and disability related.’

Dr Scott Avery (2018)

From Culture is inclusion

This report does not include results for First Nations people with disability. Currently there are no national data that reflect the unique, lived experiences of First Nations people with disability. Work at the intersection of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander identity and disability should be led by people with lived experience, ensuring the approach and analysis are grounded in expertise from the outset (Avery, 2018).

During the testing phase of the National Disability Data Asset (NDDA) (‘the pilot’), an Aboriginal Perspectives Expert Panel was embedded in the project to support the analytic work, interpret findings, and identify data development areas particular to First Nations people.  

The panel observed that:

• administrative data does not currently capture many critical factors for First Nations peoples, such as complex intergenerational trauma and community and family supports;
• many traditional languages do not have a word for ‘disability’; and
• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities talk about individuals in enabling, not deficit, terms.

The pilot concluded that research led by First Nations people is needed to address this gap, and design an appropriate framework for conceptualising disability, support needs and outcomes for First Nations people. Investments in data development are also required across a wide range of data sources, particularly community-controlled organisations where First Nations Australians are more likely to identify and accept a targeted service or support.

It is recognised that developing data that can address these complexities will take time. A key first step is to develop a framework to conceptualise disability, support needs, and outcomes for First Nations people and determine how this fits with governance, access and use.

‘This research [Culture is Inclusion] has positioned the First Peoples disability community as unique holders of “insider” knowledge on their own lived experience.’ 

Dr Scott Avery (2018)

From Culture is Inclusion

We also recognise that work examining the intersection of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander identity and disability should be led by people who live at this intersection, ensuring that the approach and analysis are grounded in their expertise from the outset. This is aligned to Closing the Gap Priority Reform 4 (Shared Access to Data and Information at a Regional Level) (Closing the Gap, n.d.).

The first set of disability flags do not explore the complexities of disability. The flags use administrative data from government services and payments, each with its own eligibility rules and definitions of disability. As these definitions vary, the flags do not capture a person's functional capacity, the support or barriers in their environment, as well which medical conditions may be present or associated with that disability. This means we cannot yet consistently determine how people with varying functional ability or 'type' of disability use government services.

People with disability are diverse and treating them as a single group limits insight. A person's capabilities, supports from their environment and the type of disability they have can affect their care needs, access to supports and capacity to work. For example, people with psychosocial disability may need more mental health support, while people with intellectual disability can face unique barriers to accessing health care. When comparing results for people receiving different government disability supports, it is important to recognise that the distribution of disability types varies across support cohorts.

Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) (2022) Disability, Ageing and Carers, Australia: Summary of Findings, ABS website, accessed 16 December 2025.  

Avery, S (2018) Culture is Inclusion: A Narrative of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People with Disability, Western Sydney University website, accessed 2 February 2026. 

Closing the Gap (n.d.) 6. Priority Reform Four - Shared Access to Data and Information at a Regional Level, Closing the Gap website, accessed 21 May 2026.

Hill, AO, Amos, N, Bourne, A, Parsons, M, Bigby, C, Carman, M and Lyons, A (2022) Violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation of LGBTQA+ people with disability: a secondary analysis of data from two national surveys, Disability Royal Commission (DRC) website, accessed 19 February 2026. 

National Disability Data Asset (NDDA) (2026) Insights, NDDA website, accessed 2 February 2026. 

National Disability Data Asset (NDDA) (2021) Interim learnings from test case analyses, NDDA website, accessed 2 February 2026.

National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) (2026) Cultural and Linguistic Diversity Strategy, NDIS website, accessed 29 May 2026. 

Women With Disabilities Australia (WWDA) (2024) WWDA’s Position Statement: NDIS Gender Strategy, WWDA website, accessed 16 December 2025.