What the new Disability Support Services Bill means for disabled people and whānau
Updated 25 May 2026
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The Government introduced the Disability Support Services Bill to Parliament on Monday 18 May 2026. Hon Louise Upston, Minister for Disability Issues, says the Bill will bring "clarity and stability" to the system that supports thousands of disabled people. Many disabled people, whānau hauā and advocates disagree.
CCS Disability Action is concerned that this Bill could reshape disability support in Aotearoa New Zealand for decades to come. Most of the detail sits outside the Bill itself, in regulations that future Ministers can change without the same level of public scrutiny. The Bill also sidesteps a recent Supreme Court ruling that recognised some family carers as employees. And it embeds language about "natural supports" and "family responsibility" that risks shifting more unpaid care onto families who are already stretched.
We support a clear legislative foundation for Disability Support Services. We do not support one that locks in a charity-era view of disability, narrows people's choices, and removes existing rights without proper public input.
What the Bill does
The Disability Support Services Bill sets out, for the first time in primary legislation, the purpose and operating rules for Disability Support Services. Disability Support Services currently funds support for about 55,000 disabled people, including residential and community-based support. It also funds equipment and modification (eg. mobility aids) for around 100,000 people, and child development services for around 26,000 disabled tamariki each year, according to the Beehive media release.
The Bill had its first reading on Thursday 21 May 2026. It has now been referred to the Social Services and Community Select Committee.
The Minister says the Bill will improve "consistency, fairness, transparency and sustainability." She points to $2.1 billion in extra funding across the last two Budgets, and to a new nationally consistent assessment process.
But the structure of this Bill matters as much as its stated intent. Most of the substantive detail – who is eligible, what supports are funded, how decisions are made – is left to secondary legislation. That means future Ministers can change the rules through regulation, without the level of debate and public submission that primary legislation requires.
Sidestepping the Supreme Court decision on family carers
In December 2025, the Supreme Court unanimously found that some family carers are in an employment relationship with the Ministry of Health. The case, Fleming v Attorney-General [2025] NZSC 188, was brought by Christine Fleming and Peter Humphreys. Both provide round-the-clock support to their disabled adult children.
The Court said the work these carers do, the constraints on their lives, and the benefit of their care to the Ministry meant they were working, at least for some of the time they were caring.
The new Bill responds by deeming any hours a family carer provides above their funded allocation not to be "work" under the Minimum Wage Act 1983. The Minister has said the Bill does not affect the two successful claimants. It does, however, close the door on similar claims in future.
Minister Upston told Parliament she believes there are "better ways to recognise and support carers than treating family members as state employees." She has commissioned further work on a carer support package.
We agree family carers deserve better recognition. But removing the legal pathway the Supreme Court has just confirmed, before that better package is on the table, leaves carers with less certainty. Not more.
Phoebe Eden-Mann, National Policy Analyst at CCS Disability Action, says the Supreme Court ruling was a step forward, not a problem to be fixed.
"The Supreme Court decision last December was a win. It recognised that parents who care full time for their disabled children should be considered employees, entitled to the minimum wage and other employment rights," Eden-Mann said.
"This new legislation sidesteps that ruling to avoid Government responsibility."
Many family members of disabled people leave paid employment to provide full-time care. Often without training, without backup and without recognition.
"Natural supports" and the redefinition of family responsibility
Two pieces of the Bill's wording sit at the heart of the concern: a "families first" principle, and an unusually broad definition of who counts as family.
The Bill states that "families, whānau, and other culturally recognised family groups, where appropriate, have responsibility in the first instance for the well-being of their members." Before Disability Support Services can be provided, an eligible person is expected to "use their resources and any other support that is available to them" – including from other publicly funded sources, from their family, whānau or cultural family group, and from their community.
The Bill then defines "family member" to include a person's spouse, civil union or de facto partner, child, tamaiti whāngai, stepchild, grandchild, sibling, half-sibling or step-sibling, parent or step-parent, a person who acts as a parent, grandparent, uncle, aunt, nephew, niece, and first cousin. It also includes any other member of the person's family, whānau or culturally recognised family group who is in a close relationship with them.
That is a wide net. Read alongside Clause 11(3), which explicitly allows ministerial programmes to use income-based and asset-based criteria, the framework starts to look less like a description of how communities support each other and more like a list of people the state can expect to step in before public funding is approved.
Debbie Ward, Disability Leadership Coordinator at CCS Disability Action, says the Bill quietly asks New Zealanders to settle a much bigger question.
"The Bill raises a fundamental question for all New Zealanders: do we believe disabled children, young people and adults have a right to essential support from the government, the way every child has a right to attend school regardless of their family's income? Or do we think this is something people should have to prove they cannot pay for themselves?
"Right now, this Bill answers that question through the back door, by giving a future Minister the power to introduce means testing by written notice. There are no safeguards in the legislation. No minimum floor, no parliamentary approval required.
"New Zealand has signed the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. This Bill, as drafted, puts us at risk of breaching it."
"Use your own resources first" – but what resources?
The "families first" principle assumes those resources exist. Many disabled people and whānau will tell you they do not.
Disabled adults in Aotearoa earn less than half the median income of non-disabled adults, according to Stats NZ data on disability and the labour market. Hundreds of thousands of disabled people already do not have enough to cover the basics.
Families of disabled children are already working part-time or stepping out of paid work to provide care. Many are already paying privately for therapy, equipment and other essentials that public funding does not cover. CCS Disability Action's State of wellbeing and equality for disabled people, their families, and whānau report found that 63 % of carers of disabled children said they did not have enough money, or only just enough money.
"The Bill asks disabled people and their families to use their own resources first – but what resources?" Ward said.
"Disabled adults earn less than half the median income of non-disabled adults. Hundreds of thousands of disabled people already don't have enough to cover basics. Families of disabled children are already working part-time, paying privately for therapy, and absorbing costs the government hasn't met.
Where this sits in international law
The "families first" framing also runs against Aotearoa's obligations under international law.
Under Article 19 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, New Zealand is obligated to ensure disabled people have access to "the personal assistance necessary to support living and inclusion in the community, and to prevent isolation or segregation from the community."
Under Article 28, the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities has specifically recommended that New Zealand urgently address fragmentation and inequity in disability support, and ensure an adequate standard of living for disabled people and their whānau.
A framework that quietly increases what whānau and extended family are expected to absorb, in the context of poverty and underfunding the Government already acknowledges, sits uneasily next to those obligations.
Disability support in Aotearoa has historically been built on the social model of disability. The starting point is that disabled people are equal citizens, entitled to participation and support from society. Whānau, friendship and community matter deeply. They are not, and have never been, a substitute for the state's responsibility to disabled citizens.
This Bill subtly shifts that starting point. Even where it does not force anyone to provide care, it builds a legal framework in which the existence of family, extended whānau and community connections can be treated as part of the support system the state expects disabled people to rely on first.
The means-testing risk hidden in the detail
Two clauses in the Bill have raised particular concern among disability advocates: Clause 8 and Clause 11(3).
Clause 8 establishes the "families first" principle. Before Disability Support Services can be provided, an eligible person is expected to use their own resources first. They are also expected to use any support available from family, whānau and community. Clause 11(3) sets out the criteria the Minister may use to design ministerial programmes. That list explicitly includes income-based and asset-based criteria.
Dr Rebekah Graham is a registered community psychologist and the National Executive Officer for Parents of Vision Impaired NZ. She has published a detailed clause-by-clause analysis of the Bill. She is unambiguous about what those two clauses do when read together.
"This Clause creates, for the first time in Aotearoa New Zealand, an explicit statutory authority for the government to be able to introduce income and asset testing for disabled people seeking disability support services," Graham writes.
"The Bill sets no minimum level of support that cannot be withdrawn on means-testing grounds, and no requirement that means-testing criteria be reasonable or proportionate."
Means testing has never applied to direct disability support in this country. ACC is not means tested. Public hospital care is not means tested. Public school education is not means tested. Superannuation is not means tested. The Bill does not introduce mean testing directly. But it does put the legal architecture in place. A future Minister could then introduce it through regulation, without a parliamentary vote.
Eden-Mann says the framing of "natural supports" in the Bill is part of the same shift.
"Natural supports cannot and should not replace paid care, which the Government is obligated to provide," she said.
Graham also points out the Bill's silence on the realities families actually live with.
Dr Huhana Hickey, a New Zealand lawyer and long-standing disability rights advocate, describes the same shift in philosophical terms.
"The biggest issue is not necessarily what the Bill removes immediately. It is what it normalises for the future," Hickey writes. The Bill "appears to redefine disability support from a rights-based support system toward a limited, financially managed contribution system."
The Government did not consult disabled people
Another concerning admission about this Bill sits inside the Government's own paperwork. The Regulatory Impact Statement that accompanies the Bill acknowledges, at paragraph 44 on page 19, that "there will be no community consultation prior to the DSS Bill being introduced to the House of Representatives." It also states this "may be seen as inconsistent with the obligation in the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities to actively involve and closely consult with representative organisations of disabled people on matters that directly affect them."
Phoebe Eden-Mann says the gap between that admission and the Government's public messaging is significant.
"It is very concerning that the Government's own Regulatory Impact Statement recognises it has not met its obligations to consult disabled people and support agencies under the Convention," Eden-Mann said. "Yet the Minister’s public statement references consulting with the community. The Regulatory Impact Statement is clear. No consultation took place before this Bill was introduced."
The impact on whānau, women and ageing parents
Most family carers in Aotearoa are women. Many are older parents still supporting disabled adult sons and daughters into later life. They are already carrying significant physical, emotional and financial load.
Lisa McEvoy, a parent of a disabled adult, told Emily Writes that the Bill is "not just a disability issue. It's an ageing New Zealand issue."
"Thousands of older parents are still caring for disabled adult sons and daughters well into their 60s, 70s and 80s. Many are already exhausted, financially stretched, and terrified about what happens when they are gone," McEvoy said.
"Families matter deeply, but love should not become substitute welfare infrastructure because the state is under pressure."
The financial pressure on families is already significant. CCS Disability Action's State of wellbeing and equality for disabled people, their families, and whānau report found that households with disabled children are 1.4 to 1.6 times more likely to live below the poverty line than households with non-disabled children. 63% of carers of disabled children said they did not have enough money, or only just enough money. Disabled adults under 65 are 2.5 times more likely to experience material hardship than their non-disabled peers. A framework that quietly transfers more responsibility onto families risks deepening that gap, not closing it.
The Bill also has implications for whānau hauā Māori and tāngata whaikaha Māori. Te Tiriti partnership and Māori self-determination are not visible in the Bill. Nor is the leadership of whānau hauā Māori in shaping the services that affect their lives. The social model of disability and our Te Tiriti obligations would expect them to be.
What CCS Disability Action is calling for
Debbie Ward, Disability Leadership Coordinator at CCS Disability Action, says the Bill needs significant change before it should become law.
"Disabled people and whānau have been asking for a clear, rights-based foundation for disability support for years. This Bill is not that," Ward said.
"It puts most of the important detail into regulations that can be changed without proper public input. It disregards a Supreme Court decision that recognised the real work family carers do. And it builds in language that treats Government funding as a top-up to family effort, rather than as a right."
"Disabled people are equal citizens. Our support system should reflect that, not return us to a charity-era idea of disability."
CCS Disability Action will make a submission to the Social Services and Community Select Committee. We will call for:
A clear, rights-based purpose for Disability Support Services, grounded in the social model of disability and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
The substantive detail of eligibility, funding and decision-making moved into the primary legislation, where it can be properly debated.
Removal of the clauses that open the door to means testing.
A proper plan for recognising and resourcing family carers, developed with carers, before any reversal of Fleming v Attorney-General.
Active partnership with whānau hauā Māori, tāngata whaikaha Māori, iwi and hapū in shaping the final Bill.
A commitment that the Government will not breach their obligations to consult disabled people and on matters that directly affect them, as is guaranteed under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
What this means for current disability support
We want to reassure disabled people and families that right now, there are no changes to current supports, funding or eligibility. The Bill will need to pass three readings and a select committee process before any of its provisions can take effect.
It is also positive that the Bill has not been introduced under urgency. It will go through the standard select committee process. That means disabled people, whānau and the wider public have a real opportunity to give feedback before any of it becomes law.
How to have your say
Download our submissions guideline here. (Word document)
The Bill has been referred to the Social Services and Community Select Committee after its first reading on 21 May 2026. Submissions are now open, with a deadline of 1.00pm on Friday, 12 June 2026.
CCS Disability Action will make an official submission. If you have feedback you would like us to consider:
DM us via one of our social media channels (Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn).
Share your experience by emailing: digitalcomms@ccsDisabilityAction.org.nz
Personal stories carry real weight at select committee. Your experience matters.
We will keep you updated as the Bill moves through Parliament. And we will keep speaking up for a system that respects choice, supports self-determination, and treats disabled people and whānau as equal citizens.
Frequently Asked Questions
When was the Disability Support Services Bill introduced?
The Bill was introduced to Parliament on Monday 18 May 2026 by the Minister for Disability Issues, Hon Louise Upston. The first reading was held on Thursday 21 May 2026.
Does the Bill change my current supports or funding?
The Government has said the introduction of the Bill does not change existing services, funding allocations, or who can receive Disability Support Services. Future changes would be made through regulations.
What is the Supreme Court decision the Bill responds to?
In December 2025, the Supreme Court found in Fleming v Attorney-General [2025] NZSC 188 that some family carers were in an employment relationship with the Ministry of Health. The Bill would prevent similar claims in future, but does not affect the two successful claimants.
What is "means testing" and does this Bill introduce it?
Means testing means deciding who gets a service based on their income or assets. Disability Support Services has never been means tested in Aotearoa New Zealand. The Bill does not introduce means testing directly. But advocates including Dr Rebekah Graham say Clause 11(3) creates the legal authority for a future Minister to introduce it through regulation.
How does a bill become law in New Zealand?
A bill goes through several steps in Parliament before it becomes law.
Introduction and first reading. The Bill is introduced and Parliament debates whether it should go to a select committee.
Select committee stage. The select committee invites written submissions from the public, hears from people in person, considers the evidence and recommends changes. This is the main opportunity for disabled people, whānau and the wider community to shape the Bill.
Second reading. The amended Bill goes back to the House. MPs debate the changes the committee has recommended.
Committee of the whole House. MPs go through the Bill clause by clause and can propose further amendments.
Third reading. Parliament holds a final debate and votes. If the Bill passes, it goes to the Governor-General for Royal Assent and becomes law.
The Disability Support Services Bill is at step two. This stage is where your voice matters most.
How can I make a submission?
Submissions are now open and can be made on the Parliament website. Submissions close 1.00pm on Friday, 12 June 2026.
About CCS Disability Action
CCS Disability Action is the largest pan-disability support and advocacy organisation in Aotearoa New Zealand.
We support people with all types of impairments and have been working alongside disabled people since 1935.
We are at the forefront of service provision, advocacy and information sharing in the disability sector. We partner with disabled people, their families and whānau to enable them to have choice and control in their lives. Our vision is to see every disabled person and whānau hauā interwoven into the lives of their whānau and community.