'Slap in the face': Mother's scathing assessment of NDIS bill

Skye Kakoschke-Moore says the government's bill would shift more work onto already burnt-out families. (ABC News: Che Chorley)

The first of three days of Senate hearings probing the government's dramatic NDIS bill has been held in Melbourne.

Advocates aired a raft of concerns about the proposed legislation, including changes they worry will push more responsibilities onto exhausted families.

NDIS and other government officials are scheduled to give evidence later in the week.

Exhausted families could be plunged further into crisis and have more interactions with child protection services under the Albanese government's proposed overhaul of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), advocates have told an inquiry.

A Senate inquiry into dramatic NDIS changes received more than 4,000 written submissions in just over a fortnight and is now holding three days of public hearings.

The sweeping changes have been designed to make the now-$50 billion NDIS more sustainable, following concerns the scheme was growing faster than Medicare, losing public support and on track to cost $70 billion by the end of the decade.

The changes would result in about 300,000 people either being removed or prevented from accessing the scheme over the next four years, saving more than $38 billion over that time.

A Senate committee is holding three days of public hearings into the draft legislation. (ABC News: Patrick Stone)

Children and Young People with Disability Australia chief executive Skye Kakoschke-Moore said a change stating that parents were responsible for providing "substantial care and support" for their children would shift more work onto families.

"Substantial care and support" has been defined by the bill as including supervision, personal care, behavioural support and "other assistance … that, regardless of the child's disability, would reasonably be expected of a parent of a child of a similar age".

"Expecting a parent to single-handedly provide the same level of care and support as a team of skilled, qualified, experienced support workers risks putting that family into further crisis and may lead to increased instances of carer burnout," Ms Kakoschke-Moore said.

She said families had already reported being told by staff at the agency running the NDIS "that if they weren't able to fulfil their parental responsibility, then they would be referred to child protective services".

"What we're really scared will happen here is that kind of position is going to be taken more often and that more families will feel under threat because they're reaching out f