Submission No 84
INQUIRY INTO IMPLEMENTATION OF THE NATIONAL DISABILITY INSURANCE SCHEME AND THE PROVISION OF DISABILITY SERVICES IN NEW SOUTH WALES
Organisation: Name suppressed Date Received: 10 July 2018
Partially Confidential
Good Afternoon
Please find below, our findings regarding the NDIS as requested via email.
It would be appreciated if our “name” was not used in any context, for obvious reasons.
This is a copy of an email sent to our local member in March 2018.
Dear
A while ago, you asked us to give you a list of the misuse of the NDIS programme that we were aware of through observation within our sporting group. Please note that these comments are only what we have seen or been told and we would appreciate it if you are going to use our observations as evidence, our name NOT be linked to any of these situations for obvious reasons.
We have witnessed parents using NDIS carers to transport their sons/daughters to competitions etc when they (the parents) are very capable of transporting their bowler on their own. Usually the parents are just at home doing their own thing or they say that they “are not prepared to drive that far”. Before the NDIS came into use, they would have had to transport their sons/daughters by themselves. Some parents use the NDIS carers to transport their sons/daughters to movies or to go shopping just because the parent is working under the guise of them requiring assistance when they are actually quite “able” to go to the movies or go shopping on their own or with friends.
Many of the carers that are provided under NDIS are not aware of the bowler’s medical conditions/temperaments/idiosyncrasies and requirements and they (the carer) usually just sit at the back of the alley on their phones, sit down and have a meal or go outside to have a cigarette or make a phone call. We have been asked numerous times by these “carers”, “what is ’s or s condition and what does he or she like to do”. Surely these are questions that the carer should already know if they are properly trained.
We have witnessed many parents, suddenly using NDIS to support their sons/daughters by attending dieticians, personal trainers, yoga classes, anger management classes when before NDIS there was apparently no needed for these services by these families. It seems that before NDIS was available, the parents were not willing to pay for these services on their own but when NDIS
came into action, they feel that because it is “free or subsided” they will use what they can get.
Some of the parents have openly admitted that their son/daughter really do not require these services but because they can now get them, they will. In many of these cases, the disabled person has not required these services, some for 30+ years but now they suddenly need help!
Some parents have told us that they are using NDIS carers to assist their sons/daughters to learn money skills, how to get money out of an ATM, teach them how to cook, come in to read to the disabled person, to go with the disabled person to learn new transport routes (when the parent is quite able to do so) – surely this is the parents responsibility (if they are able). But in our eyes, the icing on the cake was when one parent openly admitted that they were applying to NDIS to have someone come in and teach their son how to fold clothes! Whether or not they received this service, we do not know, but this is the thought process that most of the parents have regarding NDIS.
One of our parents had a NDIS person come in to teach their son money skills, which in our eyes is a job the parent could do but ended up telling the NDIS person to go when the carer asked if the parent could go into the garden and collect stones so they could use this to teach the son adding up and money skills.
Some disabled people are now attending TAFE courses because they are able to obtain funding through NDIS. Usually it seems, these courses are not relevant to this person and this person will possibly not use the course but they are being sent to “pass their day” of just “because they can”.
Quite recently, we had a case of parents going on a 3 day cruise and they did not wish to take their daughter, (even though brothers and sisters lived close by) so they had an NDIS carer come in and live with the daughter – this family has not required any respite in the past so our question is “why do they need NDIS to pay for this now”. This daughter usually works a few days a week and has not require this assistance in the past and has been left alone quite often but it seem now that because NDIS is available they will use it.
This same family told us that they had a granny flat built with assistance of NDIS so their daughter can live separately from the family. Even though the daughter has lived with them for 30+ years they now feel that she must live “independently” with thanks to NDIS. They have stated that they would not have organised this building if they had to totally pay for it themselves.
Some of our members are under NDIS plans and some or not but we were all under the impression that NDIS was to be used for severely disabled people, to provide them with reasonable and necessary support – some of the above examples are plainly not necessary and definitely not reasonable.
A family we are aware of, gets NDIS assistance by obtaining a carer to come into their house 1 day a week, to “sit and entertain” their daughter while the parent is at work when the daughter usually catches a bus then walks to her employment independently 3 days a week, goes to the gym by herself and goes out on weekends by herself or with her friends but they claim that it “socialises her”.
Another family we have been chatting with over the past year, told us that they have applied for funding so their disabled daughter can learn to drive. The problem is the daughter does not wish to drive (she says that she is not confident enough) and possibly will never drive but the family already has the funding for this service – if needed in the future.
Parents who live just down the road from a bowling alley in Illawarra, have an NDIS carer collect their son and take him to the bowling alley, stay and watch him bowl then drive him home because they are tired of going bowling and watching him.
These are just some of the examples, we have heard about and we are sure that there are many more.
You read newspaper headlines and hear on TV about disabled people being “knocked back” with funding when they have life threatening conditions but as you can see from the examples above there seem to be different rules for different people.
The latest example of this is with , who has been no the news this week, a lady who is terminally ill and unable to return to her home because she can not get a carer to look after her. This lady wishes to go home to her children (aged 16 and 18) to die and her extended family has battled for months to receive some assistance from NDIS but so far without success. BUT we have examples of cases above, whereby some can get assistance for things that are so trivial and really not required.
We understand that some disabled people need to learn to build skills and capabilities so they can participate in the community and employment but we also feel that the system is being abused by so many. Especially when quite able parents/families are obtaining NDIS assistance when they themselves can provide this education.
We hope that this give you a greater light into this situation from people that have witnessed the misuse of this scheme.