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

Submission 38

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

I am writing to express my concerns about the new NDIS bill.

My son has been diagnosed with multiple disabilities and psychosocial, mental health issues, his whole life which makes life extremely challenging for him on a daily basis.

He is an amazing young man with the ability and determination to continually achieve. He has such inner strength and determination that should be supported not disregarded which is what is happening with the proposed amendments to the NDIS Bill.

I ask you to imagine what it would be like if the Government past legislation that from now on if you are deemed ‘short’ you will not be able to choose where you live or how you live, we will make funding decisions based just on your height and nothing else. We will totally disregard where you currently live and any reports that you have from Allied Health Professionals substantiating why. We will also not give you any rights to appeal this decision.

How do you think this would make you feel? Wouldn’t you be up in arms about your human rights?

This is effectively what these changes to the NDIS can amount to for people like my son who require 24/7 1:1 support. He currently lives in a two-bedroom government house with 24/7 support. He has been living in his own place for the past 4 years with this support. He works 4 days a week, 3 hours per day with his 1:1 support in mainstream employment. He is currently achieving most of his goals and is immersed and accepted in his workplace and his community.

As an outcome of new proposals this could all be taken away from him. It has been proposed that NDIS participants who require 1:1 24/7 care be provided funding for 1:3 which effectively means our son would be forced to move out of his own home and live with two other people and would no longer have support to continue to work without any means for appeal.

So please tell me how taking away a persons [sic] home and job are beneficial to them. Would you stand for it, would anyone else stand for it, I think not.

These proposed changes take away a person with a disability right to choice and control.

Any changes to the NDIS should be through co-design with people who experience the difficulties on a daily basis. Without this insight and knowledge how could anyone without a disability honestly know how changes would affect them? Just in the disability community itself there are such diverse needs and supports required as there are in the mainstream community.

Disability can happen to anyone, anytime through no fault of their own, you certainly wouldn’t ask for it. Stop punishing NDIS participants and making their already difficult lives even harder. Give them the respect they deserve and listen and involve them in decisions that affect them.

Sincerely

11 July 2024