Federal disability funding still climbs sharply under the Albanese government, driven not just by NDIS packages but also by pension and carer payments for people unable to work.
Labor highlights its plan to curb NDIS growth as central to achieving more than half of the federal budget’s projected savings over the next four years.
Other disability-related programmes remain large and persistent components of total expenditure, quietly pushing the overall disability bill towards $100 billion.
By 2027, the government expects NDIS spending to reach $56.1 billion, sitting alongside $27.6 billion in direct financial support for people with disability and $13.97 billion for carers.
Much of this non-NDIS funding flows through the Department of Social Services as income support, including disability pensions and related supplements.
These payments help cover basic living costs such as rent, groceries and other household expenses that NDIS packages do not touch.
Disability policy therefore splits into two pillars, individual support plans through the NDIS and broader welfare-style payments that keep households afloat.
Non-NDIS payments are politically and practically difficult to wind back because they cover essential everyday costs, particularly housing, for people who cannot work or who care for those who cannot.
Policymakers see these supports as the minimum social safety net, not a discretionary add-on to NDIS reform.
That tension means even ambitious NDIS savings targets do little to reduce the broader disability funding envelope.
Total spending looks likely to keep growing, via different channels in the system.
