Report reveals alarming lack of NDIS access for people with psychosocial disabilities

Tuesday, 9 December, 2025

A new report has exposed the widening gap in NDIS access for people with psychosocial disabilities, highlighting the urgent need for reform.

Access Denied: Psychosocial Disability and the NDIS was published by the Australian Psychosocial Alliance (APA), a national alliance of leading mental health support organisations including Flourish. It draws on first-hand insights from consumers, participants, carers and others involved in the system, as well as NDIS statistics and APA organisational data.

Key findings

The report finds that NDIS access has dramatically reduced for people with psychosocial disability in recent years, with participation well below predicted rates and numbers.

Other key findings include:

NDIS eligibility assessments demonstrate poor understanding of psychosocial disability and mental health, and ignore expert assessments
NDIS eligibility assessment responses are inconsistent, non-individualised and lacking in natural justice. Non-expert assessors have, on multiple occasions, identified inappropriate treatments not being tried as grounds to reject permanency
NDIS eligibility assessment processes create disproportionate barriers for people from marginalised backgrounds, including people with psychosocial disability
There is a substantial risk to people with psychosocial disability because they are being excluded from the NDIS at a time when almost no other supports are available outside the NDIS.

The report also found that there is an inappropriate and inaccurate view that there are too many people with psychosocial disability in the NDIS; and that most recommendations for improvements to the NDIS for people with psychosocial disability remain unimplemented, over a decade since the scheme began.

Urgent need for reform

The report calls for the federal government to resolve the critical issues of psychosocial disability access to the NDIS, create a psychosocial disability pathway within the NDIS, improve the NDIA’s psychosocial disability capability, and ensure greater expert oversight that prioritises lived experience representation.

These reforms will help create a fairer, more equitable NDIS, and ensure that people living with psychosocial disability are able to access the support they need and are entitled to.