People with disability in Australia

Introduction

People with disability who need support can use specialist disability services, mainstream services, and/or be supported by informal carers. They may also receive financial assistance to help with daily activities (see Income support for more information on financial assistance).

This section focuses on one part of this broader, and interacting, system of supports – specialist disability support services funded or provided by government.

Specialist disability support services are now largely provided through the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS). Most, but not all, National Disability Agreement (NDA) services, and the people using them, have transitioned to the NDIS. For information on services provided under the NDA, please refer to the archived versions of this report.

In 2019–20, support was provided to people with disability under the NDIS and other disability-specific services. In that year, government expenditure on disability was $18.7 billion. This includes $16.0 billion provided to the NDIS; the remaining $2.7 billion in 2019–20 was for disability-specific services provided outside the NDIS (SCRGSP 2020, 2021).

This section provides information on:

• eligibility for and service provision in the NDIS
• met and unmet need for formal services (from the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ (ABS) Survey of Disability, Ageing and Carers (SDAC)).

Support provided through the National Disability Insurance Scheme

The NDIS is designed to provide Australians with permanent and significant disability with the reasonable and necessary support needed to participate in everyday life.

Active participants

At 31 March 2022, there were around 519,000 active NDIS participants with approved plans (with an additional 11,200 children supported by the early childhood approach) (NDIA 2022).

Of active NDIS participants as at 31 March 2022:

• 4 in 10 (41% or 215,000) were aged 14 or under
• more than 3 in 5 (62% or 319,000) were male (excluding gender stated as ‘other’)
• 8.7% (or 37,300) identified as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander (excluding 88,600 with Indigenous status not stated)
• 79% lived in major cities or towns with population over 50,000, and 8.0% lived in towns with population below 5,000 or in remote or very remote areas
• the most common disability groups were autism (34%), intellectual disability (18%, including those with Down syndrome) and psychosocial disability (11%)
• 26% had a low level of function, 46% had a medium level of function and 28% had a high level of function, in terms of level of disability
• 2,700 were younger people in residential aged care (aged under 65) (NDIA 2022).

See NDIS quarterly reports for the latest data.

Eligibility

At 31 December 2020, 85% (or 469,000) of applicants to the NDIS were ever eligible for access (NDIA 2021b).

This section reports on variations in eligibility for NDIS supports across various population groups. While there may be multiple possible reasons behind these differences, this report does not attribute these differences to any particular reason, nor does it make any inferences about causation.

Eligibility varies by age and gender. At 31 December 2020, around half (52% or 245,000) of applicants who were ever eligible are aged 18 and under:

• 26% (or 122,000) aged 6 and under
• 19% (or 91,500) aged 7–14
• 6.8% (or 31,700) aged 15–18 (NDIA 2021b).

The majority of eligible applicants were males, although the proportion of females increased with age:

• 70% (or 148,000) aged 14 and under (excluding gender ‘not stated’) of those ever eligible were males
• 52% (or 32,200) aged 55–64 were males (Figure NDIS.1) (NDIA 2021b).

Eligibility does not vary substantially by whether the applicant lives in an urban or remote location; for example, of those aged 64 and under (where remoteness is known):

• 86% (or 366,000) of applicants living in a major city or a population centre with more than 50,000 inhabitants were ever eligible
• 85% (or 62,400) of those living in towns with population between 5,000 and 50,000
• 83% (or 37,700) of those living in towns with population less than 5,000, or in remote and very remote areas (NDIA 2021b).

Eligibility does not vary by Indigenous status, however it does vary for culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) groups (where CALD status is known):

• 80% (43,500) of applicants aged 64 and under who were from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds (born in a non-English speaking country and/or primarily spoke a language other than English at home) were ever eligible
• 86% (414,000) of those who did not belong to the CALD cohort (NDIA 2021b).

Eligibility also varies by disability group; for example, of those aged 64 and under:

• 96% (or 142,000) of applicants with autism were ever eligible
• 95% (or 81,200) of applicants with intellectual disability were ever eligible
• 71% (or 47,300) of applicants with psychosocial disability were ever eligible (Figure NDIS.2) (NDIA 2021b).

Differences in eligibility are also evident among disability groups by age group. For example:

• 51% of applicants aged 14 and under who were ever eligible have autism and 0.2% have psychosocial disability
• 38% of those aged 15–24 who were ever eligible have autism and 5.3% have psychosocial disability
• 4.7% of those aged 25–64 who were ever eligible have autism and 23% have psychosocial disability (Figure NDIS.3) (NDIA 2021b).
   

Supports

At 31 December 2020, 419,000 active participants aged under 65 received supports under the NDIS. Numbers of participants receiving different categories of supports varied by disability group (Figure NDIS.4), level of function, and access decision type.

For the 3 most prevalent support categories received by the active participants:

• of the 408,000 participants receiving support under the Capacity Building category of ‘Daily Activity’
  • 1 in 3 (33% or 135,000) have autism, 18% (or 71,700) have intellectual disability, and 9.6% (or 39,200) have psychosocial disability
  • 2 in 7 (27% or 110,000) have a low level of function, 45% (or 182,000) have a medium level of function and 28% (or 115,000) have a high level of function, in terms of level of disability
  • 3 in 4 (75% or 307,000) entered the scheme due to permanent disability and the remaining 25% for early intervention
• of the 319,000 participants receiving support under the Core Supports category of ‘Consumables’
  • 3 in 10 (31% or 97,800) have autism, 18% (or 56,200) have intellectual disability, and 8.3% (or 26,500) have psychosocial disability
  • 3 in 10 (31% or 98,500) have a low level of function, 43% (or 138,000) have a medium level of function and 26% (or 82,700) have a high level of function
  • 78% (or 248,000) entered the scheme due to permanent disability
• of the 265,000 participants receiving support under the Core Supports category of ‘Community’
  • 2 in 7 (28% or 73,300) have autism, 23% (or 61,800) have intellectual disability, and 15% (or 39,000) have psychosocial disability
  • 36% (or 94,800) have a low level of function, 50% (or 134,000) have a medium level of function and 14% (or 36,300) have a high level of function
  • 89% (or 236,000) entered the scheme due to permanent disability (NDIA 2021b).

Numbers of participants receiving different supports also varied by Indigenous status (where Indigenous status is known):

• of participants receiving support under the Capital Support category of ‘Home Modifications’, 4.6% (or 1,020 of 22,100) identify as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander
• of those receiving support under the Capacity Building category of ‘social, community and civic participation, and relationships’, 11% (or 3,630 of 32,600) identify as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander (NDIA 2021b).

Met and unmet need for formal services

An estimated 40% (or 1.7 million) of people with disability living in households need assistance from formal providers. Most (86% or 1.4 million) people with disability who need formal assistance with at least one activity receive some support. For those receiving formal assistance, the providers are most often private commercial organisations (61% or 886,000) or government providers (46% or 667,000) (a person can receive support from more than one provider) (ABS 2019).

Most people with disability receiving formal assistance were satisfied with the quality and range of services:

• 82% (or 847,000) of people with disability, aged 15 and over, who received formal assistance with at least one activity in the last 6 months were satisfied with the quality of service (where level of satisfaction could be determined)
• 73% (or 800,000) of people with disability, aged 15 and over, who needed assistance with at least one activity from an organised service were satisfied with the range of services (where level of satisfaction could be determined) (ABS 2019).

Not everyone with disability receives all the help they need from formal services. Common activities for which the need for formal assistance was unmet include:

• cognitive or emotional tasks (40% or 286,000 people with disability, aged 64 and under, living in households who need formal assistance with that activity)
• communication (38% or 86,000)
• property maintenance (31% or 139,000)
• household chores (31% or 124,000)
• mobility (20% or 98,000) (ABS 2019).

The reasons given for not receiving any or more help from an organised service with at least one activity include:

• service costs too much (38% or 199,000 people with disability, aged 64 and under, with an unmet need for formal assistance)
• did not know of service (18% or 95,000)
• not eligible for service (16% or 84,000)
• service does not provide sufficient hours (14% or 73,000)
• unable to arrange service (14% or 72,000)
• no service available (13% or 68,000) (ABS 2019).

Reasons for not receiving any or more help from an organised service with at least one activity differ by remoteness. Among people with disability aged 64 and under, with an unmet need for formal assistance:

• people living in Outer regional and remote areas are more likely (24% or 15,000) not to receive help due to no service being available than those living in Major cities (9% or 31,000)
• people living in Inner regional areas are more likely (23% or 26,000) not to receive help due to not being eligible for service than those living in Major cities (14% or 49,000) and Outer regional and remote areas (15% or 9,000)
• people living in Major cities are more likely (40% or 140,000) not to receive help due to service costing too much than those living in Outer regional and remote areas (27% or 16,000) (ABS 2019).