Inquiry into Implementation of the National Disability Insurance Scheme and the Provision of Disability Services in New South Wales
Name: Name suppressed Date Received: 29 June 2018
Partially Confidential
Our 8-year old son has a diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder (Level 1). He received no funding from the NDIS because he also happens to be academically gifted. Academic ability, even superior academic ability does not make up for the spectrum of social, emotional, sensory and peer relationship difficulties he experiences and will continue to experience well-into adulthood. We were fortunate enough to receive funding for our son during ages 3 to 7 years - the early intervention phase and saw enormous gains for him. It was wonderful. It supported not just him to reach and exceed milestones, but also supported me as his main carer and our family. The funding we previously received saw significant gains for our whole family, although he was the only one funded. The NDIS refusal has now left us unable to pay for any therapeutic intervention at all. We are a working family (Registered Nurse and Computer Technician sole trader business). We work very hard to provide for our family, yet our income exceeded Family Tax Benefit A threshold. So at the same time our son was refused NDIS funding, we were slapped with a $7,000 Family Tax A debt to repay. There will be further debt accrued in the 2017/2018 financial year and we await that debt too. As a family, repayment of government debt because we worked too hard is a double blow when our son who has a genuine need is refused any help at all. While the NDIS found the first opportunity to dodge supporting our son, I console myself that he is still academically gifted. Although really, a boy in Year 3 succeeding at Year 5 maths problems is hardly any gift at all.