The report found that 72 percent of not-for-profit providers and 67 percent of for-profit providers said they were doubtful that they could continue to provide National Disability Insurance Scheme services at the current prices.

Additionally, 34 percent of providers reported a fiscal loss in the 2022 – 2023 Financial Year, with a further 18 percent reporting that they had managed to ‘just’ break even.

Survey results also indicated that 82 percent of respondents had received requests for services that they could not fulfil. Similarly, 78 percent of surveyed providers had reported ‘extreme’ to ‘moderate’ difficulty in finding support workers, with the availability of allied health professionals ranging from ‘low’ to ‘non-existent.’

NDS Chief Executive Officer Laurie Leigh said the report highlighted the urgent need to restructure pricing frameworks.

“Providers are telling us there is plenty of work around, but either the pricing doesn’t make economic sense or they can’t get the staff,” she said.

“We are already seeing some major providers cease their NDIS services and exit the market altogether, which most importantly, is impacting the people with disability who rely on these to thrive.

“We welcome the independent pricing mechanism announced in last week’s NDIS Review, but if pricing issues are not addressed quickly, this will result in market failure and many more providers will not survive.”

Busi Faulkner, chief executive officer of Queensland-based disability support provider, Home Care Nurses Australia, explained that reforms were needed to ensure that providers — such as herself — were able to support tw-border-spacing-x: 0;