People on the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) and providers are worried the federal government’s push to curb its ballooning costs will mean they lose vital services.

Geoff Huddleston from the remote community of Ngukurr is one of 100 NDIS participants who receive services from Territory Care And Support Service (TCASS) in the Northern Territory and Queensland.

Since getting his NDIS support package, Mr Huddleston has been able to move into a shared house with other NDIS participants.

“When I was in Ngukurr I just stayed by myself with my family and never made any friends, it was lonely and it was very difficult,” he said.

“In Darwin, now I’ve been much better, and I have more support and people helping me.

“It’s helping me to get more independence for myself, learning to start cooking, cleaning my dishes, cleaning my room, vacuum, yeah keeping the place clean.”

At the TCASS weekly cooking class he and other NDIS participants have learned how to make their Christmas dinner.

“We’ve been making leg ham and garlic bread and salad, we make a new dish every month and then we can make it at home,” Mr Huddleston said.

For Stephen Cartmell getting an NDIS package has meant being able to get out of a life of moving between facilities, and becoming independent from the Public Trustee.

He now lives on his own in Darwin.

“I was in a tough situation, it’s taken a lot of time and effort to progress, to get more independence and learn to budget and learn how to start paying my bills and working,” he said.

“I work as a gardener Monday, Wednesday and Friday and I just keep busy and focused on getting the jobs done on time.”

The Commonwealth is determined to stop the cost of the NDIS increasing from $35 billion a year now, to $100 billion a year within a decade.

Mr Cartmell is worried this could reduce support to people like him.

TCASS director Keshini Bali Renilson said the family business primarily provided in home living supports and helped people live more independently.

It also offers group activities in its Darwin centre including crafts and yoga and helps people to shop for their own groceries.

Ms Bali Renilson is worried the federal government will respond to the NDIS review it will release on Thursday by trying to reduce costs across many areas of the service.

“It has been an expensive scheme, however the significant positive impact its having for individuals needs to be considered, and the only way it can continue to have a significant positive impact is if it’s looked at on an individual basis, rather than a set of guidelines to reduce costs,” she said.

Ms Bali Renilson said NDIS providers, not taxpayers, were mostly paying for inflation.

“Rent and fuel are 100 per cent examples of things that service providers are having to absorb,” she said.

She has acknowledged that concern about $1.4 billion in overcharging and fraud across the scheme this year has diminished public and political support for the NDIS, which needs to be restored.

“We already feel it, the public perception is that that NDIS is a rort,” she said.

“But the scheme prices are set by the scheme itself, so there’s a maximum we are allowed to charge,” she said.

“We are audited very closely on a annual basis to make sure we’re not rorting the scheme. Of course there are people who abuse the system, however I think they’re very much in the minority and they should be held to account.”

The federal government has persuaded states and territories to contribute more to the NDIS partly by promising to increasingly limit who can get onto the scheme to people with permanent and significant disabilities, so other people will have to seek support elsewhere.

Ms Bali Renilson is worried the supports available outside the NDIS are thin on the ground in the NT.

“We are most worried about those in home support packages — those supports that are provided directly to the participant,” she said.

“We’ve seen examples of allied health services being pulled back on, and the support coordination budget’s being pulled back on as well.