Amendments to eligibility and review processes for potential participants | External submission

2012

Thank you for the opportunity to comment on the National Disability Insurance Scheme Bill

The potential benefits of the scheme offer Australians living with disability hope of long overdue equity through a disability support system that will meet their individual needs. Our society we will benefit from the enormous contribution people living with disability can make to the social & economic fabric of Australia. To this end I fully support the NDIS and the legislation required to make scheme a reality, subject to some amendment:

I believe eligibility for the NDIS should exit for those who are over 65 years of age should be based on time of diagnosis, not time of application. In many cases they have been waiting for appropriate services for many years & to deny them services due to this arbitrary cut off is inequitable. The issues around a 65 year of age limitation need to be discussed & amended to ensure NDIS services are not denied to this cohort of potential participants.
There needs to be a transparent, independent complaints mechanism which is external to the agency providing services. This exists in other federally funded services such as the DEEWR funded Disability Employment Service.
Section 100 – Review of Reviewable Decisions – A participant can ask the CEO for a review and the CEO must appoint a person from their own agency to review the decision that the CEO has made. I believe there needs to be an appropriate independent person to review CEO decisions rather than “in house” reviews that may be biased towards the CEO’s findings.

25th January 2012