The services that help people fight NDIS cuts are losing their own funding, and one says it can no longer take new clients

The organisations that people with disability call when their NDIS support is cut, their housing is threatened or a provider turns on them are now facing cuts of their own.

Several long-standing disability advocacy services in multiple states have been told by the federal Department of Health, Disability and Ageing that they will not be part of its new funding program, which replaces a decades-old scheme at the end of this month.

One of them, Villamanta Disability Rights Legal Service in regional Victoria, says it is losing about 30 per cent of its total funding, and half of its core federal funding. Executive director Annie Nash says the impact will be immediate and significant: job losses, a sharp fall in the help it can give, and no new clients, despite what the service describes as unprecedented demand.

“This is a win for every dodgy provider,” Ms Nash said, pointing to providers she says are unlawfully evicting NDIS participants from their homes.

What is changing?

The government is moving disability advocacy funding into a new program, the Disability Advocacy Support Program. A department spokesperson said up to $184 million, excluding GST, was available over the six financial years from 2026-27 to 2031-32, through an open competitive grant opportunity.

The department said the new model responds to recommendations of the disability royal commission, and that organisations funded under the current model will keep receiving money until February 2027 so they can transition. It did not directly answer how many advocacy services had lost funding.

Why now matters

The timing is what has the sector alarmed. Changes to the NDIS began on 1 October. The scheme supports more than 782,000 participants, and the government expects about 240,000 of them to be moved off it over four years, saving more than $38 billion.

Advocates are often the first call for people whose plans are reduced or who are told they no longer qualify. The Disability Advocacy Network Australia’s acting chief executive, Cherry Baylosis, called the changes “out of touch”.

“Advocates are the person who will stand in somebody’s corner,” she said.

How much money is this, really?

Spread evenly, $184 million over six years is about $30.7 million a year for advocacy across the whole country. Measured against today’s NDIS, that is roughly $39 a year for each participant, before counting the millions of Australians with disability who are not on the scheme at all. That is VNN’s calculation from the department’s figures.

Set against the $38 billion the government expects to save from the NDIS changes, the entire six-year advocacy program is less than half of one per cent.

What did the royal commission want?

The disability royal commission, which reported in 2023, called for independent advocacy to be properly funded and easier to reach, arguing that people with disability need someone on their side when systems fail them. Critics of the new funding round say cutting experienced services runs against that.

Who else has lost out?

The department has not published a list, and the services told they missed out have so far spoken one by one. Villamanta says it will keep fighting the decision.