Media releases

The Fraud Fusion Taskforce (FFT) has revolutionised the fight against criminals who try to steal government payments from those who need it most. In the two years since its inception, the FFT has launched more than 500 investigations and referred 50 people to court accused of ripping off millions of dollars from people with disability and Australian taxpayers. Set up by Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) and Government Services the Hon. Bill Shorten MP in late 2022, the FFT has stopped more than $60 million in estimated fraud, with billions in NDIS payments alone currently under investigation.

Three people have been jailed in New South Wales for their roles in a multimillion-dollar defrauding of the NDIS, in a week NDIS Minister, the Hon. Bill Shorten MP announced further measures to crackdown on rorts. The sentencing is the result of an investigation into several suspected fraudulent providers in western Sydney. The investigation, led by the Australian Federal Police in partnership with the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA), AUSTRAC and Services Australia, uncovered more than $5.8 million in fraud during the thorough investigation. Two other men were sentenced to imprisonment in 2022 as part of the investigation.

Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme and Government Services the Hon. Bill Shorten MP has today announced the second part of NDIS legislation Getting it Back on Track Bill, which will significantly increase protections for Scheme participants and workers, as well as improve the quality and safety of supports for all participants.

A recent series of early morning raids, payment locks and increased prosecutions on suspected fraudulent and criminal National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) providers is showing Labor’s crackdown on frauds and rorts is having big results.

An occupational therapist who was found guilty of 22 counts of obtaining financial advantage by deception has been sentenced to six years in prison, with a non-parole period of four years, a sign of the Government’s commitment to crack down on fraud against the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS).

The Australian Government is taking action against some unscrupulous providers who are exploiting the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) by encouraging thousands of participants to spend their NDIS funding too quickly and on non-disability supports. This week, the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) and the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission have taken the initiative to write to plan managers and support coordinators who support NDIS participants, reminding them of their obligations. Earlier this month, both the Federal Budget and the NDIA’s Quarterly Report showed that intra plan inflation was a major cause of growth in the Scheme. NDIS Minister Bill Shorten said the letter to plan managers also reflects anonymised data matching between 900 NDIS plan manager ABNs and the ATO, which showed that 343 of those ABNs would have failed a statement of tax record at the time.