Making Participation Impossible: When NDIS Supports Are Removed, The Participation Tax Skyrockets
Estimated Reading Time: 3-4 minutes
Last week, the government announced major changes to the NDIS.
Around 160,000 people may be removed and every participant will be reassessed.
For those of us who rely on this support, the uncertainty is pretty scary. It feels like the message is: you aren’t disabled enough to deserve help.
I'm an AuDHD adult. I've lived with the Participation Tax my whole life, although I didn’t always have a name for it. And I know exactly what happens when the supports that lower it disappear.
How Supports Keep the Participation Tax Affordable
NDIS supports, like therapies, support workers and equipment, aren’t luxuries. They directly reduce the Participation Tax and provide many of us opportunities to engage in life that we wouldn’t otherwise have.
Occupational therapy helps a neurodivergent person manage sensory input. Without it, the Sensory Tax of a noisy classroom or office becomes overwhelming.
A support worker helps with transitions and social situations. Without them, the Transition Tax and Social Tax can increase significantly.
Psychology builds regulation skills. Without it, the Emotional Tax of fear and unpredictability grows every day.
When supports are removed, the Participation Tax doesn't stay the same. It rises, sometimes to an impossible level. I know because I have felt it firsthand as an adult on NDIS with children on NDIS.
What Happens When Supports Are Cut?
The Sensory Tax becomes unbearable. Occupational therapy often provides strategies to manage noise, light, and crowds, or funding for tools like noise-cancelling headphones. Without that support, a child can’t filter out the chaos of a classroom or a community program. Every sound, every flickering light, every bump becomes a demand. Overload hits fast.
The Cognitive Tax explodes. Without therapy and strategies, the actions of figuring out unclear instructions, remembering routines, and processing information fall entirely on the neurodivergent individual. A child who could manage a full school day may start melting down by lunch. An adult may freeze mid-task, unable to figure out the next step.
The Social Tax becomes crushing. Without a support worker or psychologist to help decode social cues, the constant effort of guessing, masking, and fitting in becomes unsustainable. Withdrawal follows. The child stops trying to join in because the cost is just too high.
The Emotional Tax compounds. The fear of being reassessed, of proving you are "disabled enough" over and over, adds a heavy cost that drains everything else. Anxiety lives in the body before the day even begins. Hope starts to fade.
The Transition Tax multiplies. Moving between activities, places, or expectations is already hard. Without a support worker to scaffold those moments, or a therapist to build transition strategies, every transition shift becomes a crisis. A child who could change tasks with a warning now melts down at every clean-up time.
The Recovery Tax stretches for days. Without funded support to build recovery strategies, the energy needed after a session (just to get back to baseline) can take days. A one-hour activity might cost a whole weekend of exhaustion. Participation becomes impossible to sustain.
What This Means for Educators and Program Leaders
You will see the impact of these changes, even if you don't work in disability services.
Children will arrive with less regulation capacity. The same environment that worked before might suddenly be too much.
More children will withdraw or refuse to attend. That isn’t bad behaviour. It’s a sign the Participation Tax has become unaffordable.
Families will be stretched thin. They may have less energy to partner with you because they are fighting for basic supports.
You can help by lowering the tax in your own setting. Make expectations visible. Reduce sensory load. Offer breaks without shame. These small changes are necessary emergency scaffolding.
What This Means for Parents
You’re absolutely not overreacting. The fear and exhaustion are real.
Trust what you see in your child. Meltdowns and withdrawal aren’t misbehaviour. They’re signs the Participation Tax is too high.
Protect your own regulation. You can’t advocate when you’re exhausted. Find your people. Rest is never weakness, and you don’t have to earn it.
Keep asking questions. Demand to know what supports will replace those being cut by NDIS changes.
What We Can Do Together
I don't have the answers. I'm still processing this myself, and waiting to see what it all means in practice.
But here's what I do know: the Participation Tax is real. And when supports are cut, that tax crushes people.
We need to:
Name what's happening. The language of the Participation Tax helps us describe the impact of these cuts. Use it. Share it.
Support each other. The disability community, the neurodivergent community, the family community – we are stronger together. Find your people.
Keep advocating. Not just for ourselves, but for each other. The government needs to hear from us – loudly, clearly, and repeatedly.
One Last Thought
The Participation Tax for autistic and neurodivergent Australians is already too high. Removing supports doesn’t lower the cost of disability - it raises the cost until people break.
We deserve better. Our children deserve better.
And together, we need to keep saying that until someone listens.
The language of the Participation Tax helps us describe the impact of these cuts. Use it. Share it.
Visit these pages for more information:
Blog Post: That Hidden Cost of Joining In (And Why Some Kids Pay More)
Blog post image from Pixabay.
