National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Getting the NDIS Back on Track No. 1) Bill 2024

Submission 105

Submission on the National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Getting the

NDIS Back on Track No. 1) Bill 2024

I am a NDIS participant with disability.

I want to respond to the proposed changes to the NDIS Bill.

I am concerned with the proposed changes. Especially the removal of the ability to go through the AAT to appeal a decision made by someone at the NDIA that isn’t well informed on relevant matters. Unfortunately, you can ring the NDIA and get 4 different responses in one day. The training of new staff will not eliminate this problem. Natural course through the appeal process is a necessity for access and equity.

It would be beneficial to NDIA to have Planners and LACS who are disability informed. It is detrimental to people with disabilities when LACS or planners deny access to services like Exercise Physiology as they think it is double dipping if someone already has Physiotherapy. People need to be disability informed. Employ people with disability because they understand disability. You will find competent people who will follow the Act and understand different therapies.

Assessment changes are confusing. How can you assess people putting them in categories where they don’t fit. I hope you have contingencies planned for complex disabilities.

Registered providers are the biggest fraudsters as seen so far. They employ a lot of uneducated staff.

National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Getting the NDIS Back on Track No. 1) Bill 2024

Submission 105

Unregistered providers are still accountable to governing bodies like ACCC. If anything, this is safer as a result.

Also, participants must have the right to request a reassessment as well as a variation

Participants deserve to receive a full draft plan before it is approved by the NDIA.

I ask the Committee to take all submissions seriously in preparing its report.