Submission No 16
INQUIRY INTO IMPLEMENTATION OF THE NATIONAL DISABILITY INSURANCE SCHEME AND THE PROVISION OF DISABILITY SERVICES IN NEW SOUTH WALES
Name: Mr Michael Sultana Date Received: 5 July 2018
I am writing with respect to a concern I have that affects my well-being and Im sure that of many of Australian Unity clients. I am a disability pensioner under the age of 65 who is not on the NDIS. I applied for it last year but it appears that if you have a debilitating illness or in my case a number of them, you are not considered disabled enough to be approved. That is another story even though that in itself is troubling. What I am writing about is that many like me are apparently having the funding provided for our homecare services cut off at the end of June 2018 that is provided by the New South Wales state government Department of Family and Community Services Aging, Disability and Home care. What this means is that many people like me who are not over 65 or have NDIS will have to fork out hundreds if not thousands of dollars we dont have to engage private contractors who already provide these services under subsidised funding arrangements. The end result being that with our already burgeoning budgets and limited income which is for most social security, we will no longer have the means of taking care of ourselves or obtaining the assistance we need to literally survive in a manner of people living in a first world western society. I cannot emphasise how scary this is for people who know what is happening like me and how much of a shock it will be to those who do not know what is happening at all.