News
The Federal Government has established a Technical Advisory Group to develop the evidence framework for new standardised functional capacity assessments, ahead of a January 2028 deadline that will change how new applicants are assessed.
The group, sitting within NDIS Minister Jenny McAllister's portfolio, is tasked with recommending the thresholds and criteria used to determine "significantly reduced functional capacity" — the new standard that will shift access away from diagnosis lists towards standardised assessments of functional capacity for new participants from 1 January 2028. Existing participants will be reassessed against the new criteria progressively over three years.
The government says the advisory group's advice is due by the end of 2026, giving the NDIA time to build and test the assessment tool before rollout. Members are being selected for their technical expertise in functional capacity assessment and are expected to include people with lived experience of disability, though the panel's full membership has not yet been made public.
The government has framed the change as delivering fairer, simpler and more consistent decisions, using trained assessors and reducing the burden on participants who currently have to repeatedly supply evidence to prove their support needs.
Disability advocates say the group's work deserves closer scrutiny than it has received so far. Key questions include whether the panel includes genuine representation of people with disability, whether psychosocial, cognitive, intellectual and fluctuating conditions will be properly captured by a standardised tool, what evidence will be accepted, and what avenues will exist to challenge a decision.
Advocacy groups have previously cautioned against assessment models that reduce people to data points, warning that similar reforms elsewhere have functioned as a gateway to funding cuts rather than a fairer process.
The advisory group's recommendations are expected to shape the criteria used for NDIS access from 2028 onward.