From: petercornhill
To: LA Committee - HACS; Helen Wilson
Subject: NDIS
Date: Thursday, 29 March 2018 2:06:59 PM
HI, I am submitting this on behalf of my wife, an NDIS participant since Oct 2015. She has had MS for the last 40 years and can no longer use her legs. She is in a wheelchair permanently and has very poor vision. Although it’s great that the government is funding a lot of her care through NDIS, unfortunately there have been lots of problems with them, to the extent that sometimes I have become angry at their performance ( due to Joanne’s impairments I have taken on the day to day organising of her care with a number of different providers.)
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Next to impossible to talk to anyone in the local Braddon office on the phone. You ring up the call centre, which can be anywhere in Australia. They send the person in Braddon an email, you wait weeks to hear back, or they never call back at all. Jo’s Coordinator has wasted hours trying to liase with NDIS, and only has a limited number of hours to do this.
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We have been waiting over 2 years since the first quote was done for Home Modifications. After a year they told us we would need to get a second quote. This took lots of time to find a second builder and get a quote done. Since then we have been put off with a number of excuses, such as they needed to do a Plan review to include it, getting the 2 providers to re-quote to exlcude some items on the original quotes,etc. Meanwhile we haven’t even got into the queue with the builder, we have worn carpet that I and support workers can easily trip on, doorways that are not yet widened to accomodate Jo’s new wheelchair so she doesn’t bash her elbows on them. So she is still in her old wheelchair with the handles taped up as they are literally falling apart. She will have to endure another winter with no heating in our bedroom(she really feels the cold at night), as the builder was going to put in a duct from the lounge where the heater is to our bedroom as part of the modifications.
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We waited 6 months to be piad back $454 for essential repairs to the hoist battery, battery charger and electric bed, which I had to get fixed immediately as they are used several times a day. Apparently there was no provision in the Plan for repairs urgent or otherwise, despite our specific request for such funds, as there are always repairs and maintenance with all our equipment. Other providers of services are reluctant to provide those services without first having written confirmation from NDIS that they will be paid.
There are a number of other problems, and details I can provide if necessary. Thanks, Joanne and Peter Cornhill.