The proposed NDIS cuts advocates worry could put women at risk

Rosemary Kayess was among those to give evidence on the second day of the Senate inquiry. ( ABC News: Billy Cooper )

The second day of public hearings into the government's generational NDIS changes has kicked off in Canberra.

The inquiry heard concerns the proposed changes could create a number of unintended consequences that would disproportionately affect women.

The government says it is monitoring the inquiry and maintains the NDIS needs a structural reset to keep it sustainable for the future.

Planned cuts to National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) community participation budgets could leave participants in unsafe environments, including increasing their risk of domestic violence, advocates have warned.

Senators are presiding over the second of three days of public hearings into draft legislation paving the way for the biggest-ever cuts to the now-$50 billion scheme.

The sweeping changes aim to make the NDIS more sustainable, due to concerns it was growing faster than Medicare, contained structural deficiencies, and was being exploited by criminals.

A key proposal would give new powers to the NDIS minister to reduce funding for whole categories of support, starting with 50 per cent cuts to social and community participation budgets.

This category covers things such as hiring support workers to take participants out of homes and to appointments, the supermarket, work, or outings.

Exhausted families could be plunged further into crisis and have greater interaction with child protection services under the proposed overhaul of the NDIS, advocates say.

Asked by independent senator David Pocock if the "power to cut people's budgets indiscriminately" could leave participants in unsafe situations, Disability Discrimination Commissioner Rosemary Kayess said "we know" it would.

She said the disability royal commission repeatedly heard over its four-and-half-year run that the worst abuse of people with disability occurred in closed settings and when they were isolated from the rest of society.

"That's how they become vulnerable. They end up in either closed environments or isolated environments, and they are at risk of violence, abuse and exploitation," she said.

Women With Disabilities Australia chief executive Sophie Cusworth said these were among several "foreseeable risks", including the potential for more domestic violence.

"Imagine a woman whose social and community participation support is the only regular contact she has outside home. It helps her to attend appointments, access community and be seen by people who know when something i