Australia’s disability support workforce is suffering from crisis-level concerns about pay, understaffing and burnout, a union survey says.

The Health Services Union study, released on Tuesday, found 63 per cent of the almost 500 workers polled had already left or had planned to leave the industry in the past year.

Almost half of respondents said they lacked staff for safe, quality care in the industry, while 74 per cent said pay did not reflect skill, responsibility and emotional toil.

The federal government last week unveiled plans to rein in spending on the $44 billion National Disability Insurance Scheme by shifting some children with autism and developmental delays to a separate $2 billion program.

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The union’s national secretary Lloyd Williams said many disability workers were “burnt out, underpaid and under-resourced”.

“The people they support feel the consequences. The data unequivocally shows this is a workforce crisis,” Williams said in a statement.

Zelda Riddell, a disability support worker with 13 years’ experience, said it was an “amazing job” but burnout had several times almost pushed her to leave the industry.

Riddell said working with staff who lacked requisite training meant risks to those under care and extra pressure on colleagues.

“Across the sector increasingly qualifications are not required so you can start up in the sector with no prior understanding of disability or human rights,” she said.

The Melbourne resident and union delegate said urgent government action was needed to improve standards or else “the danger is that people are getting hurt and neglected”.

“If I leave for something easier and better, the person who replaces me is likely to have far less skills, far less training, far less motivation to do a good job,” she said.

“They need support to get their skills up to the right standard.”

Federal parliament on Tuesday will be the site of an NDIS workforce crisis panel where lawmakers will hear from unions and employers about their experience on the industry’s frontline, the union said.

-with AAP