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A multi-agency crackdown is underway to stop dodgy actors from stealing money through false claims and inflated invoices.
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‘You will be caught’ over NDIS fraud, Shorten warns tax agents
09 September 2024
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Tax agents who try to defraud the National Disability Insurance Scheme “will be caught” as part of an intensified, multi-agency crackdown, outgoing Disability Minister Bill Shorten says.
Shorten said the Fraud Fusion Taskforce had recently ramped up investigations to stop dodgy actors ranging from practitioners to sophisticated criminal gangs.
“I want to be really clear to everyone – whether you’re a registered or unregistered provider falsifying claims, or a dodgy health practitioner falsifying assessments, or a dodgy tax agent facilitating NDIS frauds, or a dodgy plan manager facilitating false claims or a sophisticated criminal group doing all of the above, you will be caught,” he said.
The Fraud Fusion Taskforce is a partnership between 19 government agencies led by the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) and Services Australia. Members include regulators such as the Tax Practitioners Board and ASIC as well as the Tax Office.
The TPB said it would work closely with its taskforce partners to improve the system’s integrity, including “building greater fraud detection and prevention measures and taking action against any tax practitioner who may be involved in facilitating fraud”.
Individuals who suspected practitioners of committing fraud should make a report through the NDIA fraud reporting form and the TPB’s own online form, it said.
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Authorities believe as much as 5 per cent of the $29 billion scheme is being stolen each year through methods including bogus claims, inflated invoices, or invoices charged with stolen information.
Shorten said the taskforce had 72 active NDIS fraud cases with an estimated value of $34.5 million with 16 prosecutions currently in progress.
“The focus on cracking down on fraud and rorts is having a dramatic result and will only continue as the NDIA and the Fraud Fusion Taskforce continue their intensified efforts,” he said.
As a junior minister under the Rudd government, Shorten helped create the NDIS to help people with disabilities access personalised services and funding.
Following a review of the scheme in 2022–23, the government passed reforms last month to rein in the scheme’s costs and improve its sustainability, giving authorities new powers to investigate fraud, refine what can be funded under the NDIS, and limit automatic funding top-ups to participant plans.
Shorten, who announced his decision to retire from politics last week, said he was confident the overhaul would mean a “bright horizon for the NDIS”.
“What we did three weeks ago in the Parliament has meant that we will be able to set this on a direction where the scheme will be true to its original purpose, where frauds are evicted and we will start focusing on outcomes for people,” he said in a press conference alongside Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
Albanese said Shorten would remain in cabinet until February because there was still “important” work to be done on the NDIS in wake of the reforms.
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