NDIA Accountability Project

Adequate funding for people with multiple and interrelated disabilities

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

Submission 263

Submission from Fay Richards (Nominee of a participant who has no effective communication)

  1. It is vital that people with disability are given full participation in any co-design of the principles of the legislation.

  2. The Bill must account for people with multiple and interrelated disabilities to ensure adequate funding requirements to meet the needs of people with disability. The naming of only one disability is an inadequate measurement of people’s needs for support.

  3. The present systems/procedures of the NDIA/NDIS are inadequate in making real judgements of needs of people. Therefore there must be a clear and preferably simple way to apppeal or replace needs assessments done by that agency. A good place to start would be for a permanent Planner to be assigned to individuals so they can meet the person in a face-to-face way. Further reviews should be done by the same Planner i.e. Planners have a ‘case load’ of participants. No algorithm is going to inform an unknown identity employed by the NDIS to make adequate judgements in all situations. Substantial amounts of time and money could be saved if the initial Planning and Review was to be done adequately and sufficiently at those important initial stages.

  4. Participant choice and control is an integral part of this Scheme. An assigned Planner could also be responsible for the monitoring of the expenditure of the Plan and negotiate/educate individual participants to ensure participants do use their funding adequately and correctly.

  5. People with Disability have limited assets and personal money to be able to pay money back to the NDIA. Raising debts for misused money is inappropriate. Better monitoring is what is required. This requires close and regular contact from NDIA/NDIS employees. IT solutions are not adequate for these processes.

Please consider the above within the Senate Committees presently charged with responsibility for the proposed changes to the NDIS Bill presently being considered by the Australian Government to ensure success of the NDIA scheme.

Yours sincerely Mrs Fay Richards OAM