NDIS cuts will put women in danger: Women with Disabilities Australia head Sophie Cusworth says

The federal government will push tens of thousands of women into crisis if it achieves its goal of slashing funding to the NDIS, a peak body has warned.

The government wants to cut $37.8 billion over four years and kick 160,000 people off the scheme to stop it growing at an unsustainable pace and to crack down on fraudulent activity.

The changes are yet to be legislated and disability advocates are rallying to change minds before parliament votes in coming weeks.

The head of Women With Disabilities Australia, Sophie Cusworth, is one of these advocates.

She will speak at the National Press Club in Canberra on Monday and tell of the reality woman will face if the amendments are made, including the proposed cuts to community participation spending used by disabled people to access medical appointments, social activities and work.

“The government says this won’t affect participants’ health and safety. But for women with disability, that simply is not true,” Ms Cusworth will say.

“More than half have experienced physical or sexual violence since the age of 15... for us, social and community participation is a safeguard”.

Ms Cusworth isn’t ignorant to pitfalls in the NDIS but is also mindful that while half of disabled Australians are women, just 38 per cent of the scheme’s participants are female.

“We are under-diagnosed with disability the scheme recognises, more likely to live with conditions it does not properly see,” she will say.

“When the government proposes major changes to access, eligibility, and supports, it is doing so within a system that already disadvantages women.”

Other advocates calling for caution include the Australian Human Rights Commission.

On Wednesday, it advised the federal government to halt any NDIS changes until significant human rights concerns were addressed.