Supplementary submission from Making Connections Together

Good Afternoon President of Joint Standing Committee for the NDIS

As requested when I attended the Town Hall on 21 November here are my clients who have plans well below their needs

The below is based on my experiences with the Southern NSW and ACT regions

General concerns

Plans now being sent by post to participants will not work as many will just throw it away when they see the NDIS/Government logo. I do not believe that Australia Post is more secure for privacy than email or access on the portal

I have constantly sent NDIS consent to exchange information and access the participants plans and this has not been added to the clients files actually the opposite has occurred with me being informed that consent has been withdrawn. If a client does not have a copy of their plan this is the only way as coordinator that I can put supports in place for participants. Many of my clients do not have computer or email access, they will not answer No Caller ID calls and will not return 1800 or 1300 numbers.

Survey will not be completed by my clients as it means going online and they won’t. The survey is useless for most clients and therefore the result don’t give a true indication of what is occurring.

Internal Plan Review requests are ignored and definitely not acknowledged within 28 days

There is no ‘on the ground’ evidence that training is working for LAC’s and NDIS staff as what they put forward shows they have little or no knowledge of the legislation, mental health or any type of disabilities.

Julie Basso and Louise Cooper-Finch have reputations in the ACT as not believing people with a disability need the support they are getting and this shows in any conversations had with them

Mobility Allowance has to be given up if on the NDIS but this does not mean you will get the transport allowance. Been told that NDIS criteria is higher than Centrelink. If you have car and don’t use public transport you won’t get transport allowance but would be eligible for Mobility Allowance – this is not fair especially if people have been on the mobility allowance and this has assisted with all types of transport.

Support Coordination is not considered important for participants. I often do pro bono work to assist people utilise their plans. Also the criteria for payment under Support Coordination is limited and at least 10-20% of what I do for a participant cannot be claimed.

NDIS does not recognise legal guardianship and financial management paperwork and state that a nominee form is the only way. They then demand that the client sign the paperwork which they do not have capacity to understand or acknowledge.

Several LAC’s in southern NSW and the ACT have no knowledge of mental health and are considered to be the ‘expert’ in their offices. One from Feros Care has refused to acknowledge on 2 occasions

• mental health diagnosis as he believes that they don’t have a mental illness. On one occasion this was done in front of the treating psychiatrist

• I don’t believe the information given to the LAC’s is actually getting to the delegate and that the LAC’s are picking and choosing what goes to the delegate

• No choice and control for participants and they often feel belittled by the application and planning processes

• No trained or adequately funded support workers for the difficult clients or assistance for transport. Many workers in the ACT will not travel to Cooma to support a client as they say it is too far and too costly. This leaves clients who desperately need 24/7 support without support. Also if someone needs 24/7 support they are not supported to stay in their own homes and must move into supported accommodation or have no support.

• Children have less then what they had pre NDIS as services have ceased and if funding not available services will not support them.

• Many mental health services such as transport, gym and community activities have closed and these are not funding by the NDIS leaving clients with less than before the NDIS

• Many services stopped services when the NDIS came in as they stated the NDIS would supply these services privately which is not the case