Cuddle therapy, crystals, vapes and tickets to concerts will no longer by able to be claimed on the NDIS, with the government releasing a final list of supports that can be claimed on the scheme.
The list explicitly bans participants from claiming day-to-day living costs such as rent, mortgages, insurance, plus alternative therapies and “healing practices” which are not backed by evidence from Thursday October 3.
The extensive list includes reiki, shamanic healing, yoga therapy, wilderness therapy, hypnotherapy, life coaches, and cuddle therapy.
Lifestyle products like vapes, cigarettes, and legal cannabis, and dating or matchmaking services will also be prohibited.
National Disability Insurance Scheme participants will be given a one-year transition period, with administrators able to waive mistaken claims costing less than $1500.
Participants who are currently accessing a support which may be on the banned list will also be able to retain the service until their plan expires.
Mr Shorten said the strict guidelines would give participants more transparency.
“We are just putting certain therapies beyond all reasonable doubt that they are not what service providers should be offering,” he said.
“We’re just being really clear that this scheme is going to be run properly, transparently, in the best of participants, not some service providers who are selling therapies, which we cannot find much in the way of scientific or evidentiary basis.”
