People with disability in Australia

NDIS participants and their families and carers

A National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) report on NDIS participant and family/carer outcomes during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic (up to 30 June 2020) showed that COVID-19 had a mixed impact on employment (NDIA 2020).

Comparing the outcomes for families and carers of participants aged 0–14 whose NDIS entry was after the introduction of COVID-19 restrictions (23 March 2020) with those whose entry was before that date:

• families and carers of participants who had entered the scheme during COVID-19 were less likely to report having a paid job at the entry date than those who entered the scheme before COVID-19 restrictions
• at the same time, of those in a paid job, higher proportions of responding families who had entered the scheme during COVID-19 reported working 15 or more hours per week
• similarly, more families and carers said they (or their partner) were able to work as much as they wanted
• of those unable to work as much as they wanted, families and carers of participants who entered the scheme during COVID-19 were more likely to give the availability of jobs as a barrier to working more, and less likely to say the child’s situation was a barrier (NDIA 2020).

For families and carers of participants aged 0–14 who had been observed in the scheme at 2 time points (before and after introduction of COVID-19 restrictions), there was some reduction in the likelihood of having a paid job or of working 15 or more hours per week post-COVID (NDIA 2020).

For families and carers of participants aged 15 and over, no significant changes in employment were observed before and after introduction of COVID-19 restrictions (NDIA 2020, 2021):

• at 30 June 2021, the employment rates for families/carers of participants aged 0–14 increased from 46% at baseline to 50% at latest plan
• for families/carers of participants aged 15 or over, employment rates remained at 44% (NDIA 2021).

For the NDIS participants aged 15 years or over who had been in the scheme for at least 2 years, the latest employment rates as at 30 June 2021 remained the same as they were at scheme entry:

• 22% of NDIS participants aged 15 or over were employed as at 30 June 2021, the same as at scheme entry (before 30 June 2019)
• for those aged 15–24, employment rates went from 12% at scheme entry to 21% at the time of the latest plan (NDIA 2021).

Changes in employment

In March–April 2020, an online survey by CYDA designed to capture the impact of COVID-19 on children and young people with disability and their families found that 21% of respondents were unable to work in their usual employment (Dickinson and Yates 2020).

The ABS Household Impacts of COVID-19 survey showed that between November 2020 and June 2021:

• proportions of adults (aged 18 and over) with disability who had a job remained relatively constant, ranging between 40% and 46%
• adults with disability were less likely to have a job than adults without disability, whose employment rates varied between 73% and 76% (ABS 2020a, 2020c, 2021a, 2021b, 2021c, 2021d, 2021e, 2021f). 

The proportions of people who had a job were similar to the 2018 rates reported in the ‘Employment’ section of this report (48% for people aged 15–64 with disability and 80% for those without disability (ABS 2019), however these are not directly comparable due to differences in age and the collection methodology (ABS 2020b)).

From November 2020 to June 2021, between 8.5% and 16% of adults with disability reported each month that their job situation had changed[1] in the month prior to the interview:

• The highest proportions reporting changes in their job situation were in November 2020 (16% of adults with disability) and April 2021 (14% of adults with disability).
• Between a quarter and a half of people with disability whose job situation had changed in the previous month attributed the change to COVID-19.
• Among adults without disability, between 9.1% and 15% reported that their job had changed in the last month (ABS 2020a, 2020c, 2021a, 2021b, 2021c, 2021d, 2021e, 2021f).

[1] Job situation changes included working more or fewer paid hours, no longer working paid hours, finding a new job, or losing a job. In most cases, job changes were an adjustment to the working hours.

Working from home

COVID-19 restrictions meant that, for many employees, working from home arrangements had become the norm from March 2020. Between December 2020 and June 2021, the reported frequency of working from home was similar for employed people with disability and those without disability (ABS 2021a, 2021b, 2021c, 2021d, 2021e, 2021f). For example, in June 2021:

• 30% of adults with disability who had a job and 39% of those without disability reported working from home regularly (once a week or more often in the previous 4 weeks)
• just over half of employed adults (59% of those with disability and 51% without disability) had never worked from home or had not worked from home in the previous 4 weeks (ABS 2021f).

For those who usually worked from home in their job or business, the main reason for people both with and without disability was restrictions due to COVID-19:

• 16% of employed adults with disability (or about 4 in 10 employed adults with disability who were usually working from home) named COVID-19 restrictions as the main reason for working from home.
• In comparison, 11% of employed adults without disability named COVID-19 restrictions as the main reason (about a quarter of those usually working from home) (ABS 2021b).

The preferences for working from home were generally similar for employed adults with and without disability:

• 45% of people with disability and 58% of people without disability preferred to work from home more or about the same
• 32% of people with disability and 26% of people without disability said that their type of work could not be done from home
• 22% of people with disability and 16% of people without disability preferred to work from home less or not at all (ABS 2021b).