IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0321377.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Exploring the impact of a personalised disability reform on people with disability and their primary carers: Evidence from the Australian national disability insurance scheme

Author

Listed:
  • Bernice Hua Ma
  • Samia Badji
  • Gang Chen
  • Dennis Petrie

Abstract

Australia introduced the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) in 2013 to provide personalised formal care to individuals under 65 with significant and likely permanent disability. However, many ineligible individuals now face challenges accessing care. Against the backdrop of the introduction of NDIS funding and the simultaneous defunding of other disability services due to the NDIS, this research investigates the short-term impacts of NDIS on the formal service utilisation and carer outcomes for people with profound or severe disability, irrespective of their NDIS status. Using the staggered NDIS rollout, we analyse data from the 2015 and 2018 Survey of Disability, Ageing and Carers. We compare outcomes between primary carers and care recipients in NDIS-available areas (n = 736) and NDIS-not-yet-available areas (n = 318). Results show no short-term impact of NDIS availability on formal service utilisation or frequency, or primary carer outcomes. While some individuals benefit from the NDIS, others may lose access to care. Policymakers should address NDIS equity concerns and consider targeted measures to improve carer outcomes.

Suggested Citation

  • Bernice Hua Ma & Samia Badji & Gang Chen & Dennis Petrie, 2025. "Exploring the impact of a personalised disability reform on people with disability and their primary carers: Evidence from the Australian national disability insurance scheme," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 20(5), pages 1-18, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0321377
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0321377
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0321377
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0321377&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0321377?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0321377. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.