Submission 2466
National Disabilty Insurance Scheme
Amendment ( Securing the NDIS for Future
Generations) Bill 2016
My name is , I live in Nambour on the Sunshine Coast. Over the years I have worked in the hospitality industry and have done support work. I have also advocated for family members who have physical and/or mental disabilities. My reason for this submission is to give my objection to the approval of the bill. I have observed four different people on the NDIS scheme two of those were also funded by the state before the NDIS scheme got rolled out and they functioned well and contributed to their Communities and society.
My sister was one of those people and she didn’t have a great faith in the NDIS when it was presented to her at the launch in Geelong in 2010 however she had to accept
Submission 2466 the implementation from state to the federal system. When the Federal system (NDIS) started my sister continued to self manage, as she had been told to keep doing what she had been doing because it was working. For her and the system. In October 2023 my sister had her whole world turned upside down by the federal system when they revoked her ability to self manage and made her agency managed. Her access to manage her life had been blocked. That impacted her by her loss of autonomy loss of individual choice and control. It put her in a box and gave control to the government on what she could do and what they believed her needs were without them taking into consideration all of her disabilities. It also took away her freedom of choice to be able to purchase incontinence underwear that was at a cheaper cost to the government than the nappy that the NDIS said she had to use. No one wants to wear a
Submission 2466 nappy and dealing with incontinence impacts ones mental health. Having someone else make the decision over how you deal with incontinence really impacts a persons mental health and wellbeing.
Even though the NDIS say they are trying to integrate people into society. They are in fact boxing people into buying products from an NDIS registered trader. It is a human right to have Freedom of Choice and as a result of these cuts, NDIS recipient’s Freedom of Choice is being violated. Anything they need funded has to be purchased through an NDIS registered trader which occurs more cost on the government. It took three meetings with the NDIS for them to agree for Lisa to be able to keep her dignity by using the incontinence aids she knows works for her.
Then she was impacted by the cutting of therapies that worked for her. She had only 2
Submission 2466 options for therapy as they were NDIS approved and they were not options that have worked for her in the past. Taking away from her to be able to choose the therapy that gives her the most relief from the pain she has and the obstacles that stand in her way. The NDIS was suppose to help people have inclusive lives however the impact it has had on people who have real disabilities has been detrimental to their actual welfare. As we know, not all therapies work for everyone and people are individual in their challenges.
My sisters mental health has been severely affected and so now she has more health problems. She has talked of taking her own life, just to be over having deal with everyday life things that come so easily to other people who dont have to rely on a system for support to get through their everyday. My sister’s social life has become non existent due to the new way her life is
Submission 2466 managed, it has stopped her night time supports and overnight supports.On the old system and when she was self-managed she was living a fullfilling life. That has all ceased now and she has become depressed and recluse, where when she had some say in her life she was a smiling happy person, even dealing with her everyday obstacles.
I am really worried the cuts the government are looking to implement with this new bill will further decline her’s and other people’s lives, mental and physical health due to more physical pain not being able to have an independant say on how her life is managed and a loss of control and say over her life and outcomes in it.
I have many concerns on how the NDIS is run and operated. There are so many registered providers taking advantage of vulnerable people.
Submission 2466
I am also Enduring Power of Attorney for my uncle who doesn’t have the mental ability or knowledge on how to self manage and is managed by a registered provider who seems to be abusing the use of funding. There is no monitoring of how many hours the support worker does, the support worker has her children doing work that she claims hours for and he also gets an allowance for activities he does not attend and this allowance just enables him to spend more money at the local hotel and access even more alcohol which is not conducive to his health and diagnosis. Because he is in a rural district, family and myself are unable to monitor this.
Some areas of example the NDIS is failing is support workers perform cleaning duties for the participant and get support worker rates however if the NDIS employed an actual
Submission 2466 cleaner for the NDIS recipient they have paid double the hourly rate than a support worker. Group programming will not be beneficial to individuals because everyone’s needs are individual not everyone has the same disabilities. This in turn has a domino affect on everyone connected to the individual, being family, support workers and the actual management of funding because it stereotypes people and creates a loophole for the fraudulent activities that have been demonstrated by a lot of registered providers, charging the scheme for services not performed and signing up people who really do not need the NDIS. The man for who I am enduringg power of attorney is now old enough to go onto my aged care and should be transitioning to that however his registered providers are telling him “No” he has to stay on the NDIS for the rest of his life. They are overriding his families and his chosen Enduring power of attorney.
Submission 2466
There are so many things that I can write about, however due to the pace at which this bill is being presented, I have not had enough time to write about everything that will be impacted by this bill if it is approved. The bill in its current form is harmful and should not be passed. It takes away people’s human rights and Freedom of Choice which leads to further health issues being mental health as well as physical and makes vulnerable people even more vulnerable … lt is not empowering, It is dictatorship ..
Yours sincerely