The whole thing is so weird. Basically every person who gets NDIS funding is assessed and based on this assessment theyre allocated a certain amount of government money (it can be a LOT.) They can then spend that allocated money on services or products.
So take a small example, I an NDIS worker or service provider can do something for someone on the NDIS and when I invoice them I select the relevant code in the handbook for it and bill them. Then the NDIS funds are used to pay me.
There are people who are self managed and those who are on a plan. I think the widescale NDIS fraud is more prevalent if youre on a plan because you have managers managing your funds and theyre in on it.
Even in my limited experience as a solo NDIS worker there was wiggle room to commit fraud. I didn't do it though because I dont think spending taxpayers money when im a taxpayer is a good thing.
One obvious example is if a psychologist is billing normally the fee may be $400 a session. But if in the NDIS handbook they can charge $750 per session then they'll charge the maximum instead.