The Australian Government’s commitment to stopping fraud is helping to protect the funding that supports Australians living with disability and saving the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) millions of dollars, NDIS Minister Bill Shorten MP said today.
The Fraud Fusion Taskforce (FFT) recently marked 12 months since its establishment, with data showing the significant progress being made to improve government capability to prevent and respond to fraud against the NDIS.
The Taskforce, co-led by the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) and Services Australia, consists of 16 government agencies working together to stop criminals from defrauding the world-first Scheme that provides life changing support to hundreds of thousands of Australians with disability.
Services Australia has been working with participating agencies to understand and monitor the threat fraud actors pose to government programs and payments.
Using prevention and detection tactics, Services Australia is responding to organised fraud by targeting criminals that seek to exploit government payments.
Recent FFT data showed that as of 31 October:
- $356.5 million in NDIS payments is currently under investigation.
- 43 active NDIS fraud cases (up from 28 in September 2021) with an estimated fraud value of $35 million.
- 18 NDIS prosecutions in progress with an alleged fraud value of $18.3 million.
- The NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission took 92 compliance actions against providers and individuals, including the issuing of 43 banning orders.
- Services Australia has 35 active investigations under the Fraud Fusion Taskforce.
“The Taskforce is achieving encouraging results, investigating more than 100 cases in the past 12 months with over $1 billion of NDIS funding under investigation over that time.
There has been a significant rise in the number of investigations, prosecutions and providers being banned or issued with compliance notices,” Minister Shorten said.
“However those numbers only tell part of the story. By establishing this Taskforce, there is now increased sharing of information across government, which means more eyes looking for and catching any crook looking to earn a quick buck from the NDIS, while better protecting the funding of our participants.
“Putting criminals in prison is one thing, but by sharing intelligence the FFT is increasing government capability to disrupt the actions of more serious and organised crime networks.
Fraud fusion taskforce investigates $1 billion in NDIS payments in first year | NDIS
