Personal submissions - cover sheet
I would just like to tell you a little bit about my problem with M and COVID19 and how NDIS Quality and Safeguards responded. I think its really bad what haooened. M is a mental health support provider who I have used for several years, pre-NDIS and also now I have NDIS.
First I got a phone call from my M worker A on 17th of
March saying M were cancelling face to face supports and she would give me more info in about 2 weeks. I got really upset about this. I ended up complaining to M , and to Quality and Safeguards, and to the Minister’s office. M didn’t do anything about my complaint to them. The man in complaints said he couldn’t resolve it because it was the CEOs decision that I was complaining. about and it was too high for him to resolve, so he would just pass on my complaint to higher up people. He also said don’t expect M to respond to my complaint, they will use Q&S to mediate the discussion of my complaint. When I complained to Q&S first I talked to the intake person whose name I have somewhere. Maybe G but I can’t remember right now. He just records the complaints. I told him what happened and he said Q&S were getting a lot of complaints from participants about providers cancelling supports because of Covid. He said that the Q&S Supervisors were monitoring the situation. He also said that it was hard to do anything about it because businesses can do what they like. If the CEO decide to cancel then its not up to Q&S to tell them how to run their business. He also told me Q&S is a very slow lengthy process, and that
PO Box 6100, Parliament House Canbem1ACT2600
Ph: (02) 6277 3083 Email: ndis.sen@aph.gov.au Intemet: www.aph.gov.ail(joint_ndis
first they investigate slowly, then if they find the complaint is true they warn the provider and tell them to comply, and then they wait some more to see if the provider complies, and only then if the provider after all that time does not comply will Q&S consider punishing them with de registration or something. He was right about it being slow as I complained in late March I think and now it’s the end of July and I still don’t have an outcome. That’s 4 months of slow investigations with no outcome. If I was in danger I might be dead by now. I also talked to an online NDIS team leader about this issue, and she told me the NDIS were waiting for the Minister to announce something about what are the rules for providers in terms of providing supports during Covid, and they didn’t have any more information than what I got watching the press conferences etc. I also read on Facebook that the major disability organisations were having a stoush with the Minister and the government about what to do about Covid, and the government wouldn’t meet their demands. I don’t know what their demands were as I couldn’t find out anything else about it as I am not well enough connected and nobody would tell me on Facebook. I feel like the NDIS rules should not be so politicised that the staff have to wait for the Minister to tell them what to do, and also why didn’t the head of Q&S just phone the Minister and ask him what to do? Also the disability providers shouldn’t have more sway than us disabled people. We didn’t get to negotiate with government about Covid responses. Eventually I got a reply from the Minister’s office to my complaint letter, saying that NDIS registered providers shouldn’t just cancel supports they should work it out with the participant what is essential. They can’t just cancel on us.
PO Box 6100, Parliament House Canberra ACT 2600
Ph: (02) 6277 3083 Email: ndis.sen@aph.gov.au Internet: www.aph.gov.au/joint_ndis
Personal submissions - cover sheet I also later got a fact sheet from the NDIS psychosocial team saying the same thing. That was via my volunteering at VMIAC NDIS Critical Reference Group. Anyway a woman called K from Vic Complaints Q&S started investigating my complaint for Q&S and it is a very slow process its taken months without getting a result. I presume she is concentrating more on other complaints and not on my complaint, or else why is it so slow? I could investigate it quicker than this and I’m disabled with schizoaffective disorder, delusional disorder (in remission}, and autism level 2.
M lied to K about various things, and when I said why isn't
she listening to me, why does she take M side? she said M have record keeping they have to do so she believes them more than me. I went on the 7.30 Report and the M CEO also lied on the 7.30 Report and pretended they were still giving me support, on TV, when they weren’t, and then this big industry organisation put out a press release about the 7.30 Report story and lied about me on that too saying I
was getting online support from M . And when I phoned
them to complain it was wrong the man who wrote it
wouldn't change it, and said the CEO of M was
happy with it. And they wouldn’t let me write my version of things on their website. And I didn’t have an industry organisation to do a press release that was from my side and also accurate and not pretending I got support I didn’t get. And K said did I want a letter of apology, and I said no I wanted de-registration and she said its not possible, and I said I know it is possible, its in the rules. Q&S can de register registered providers who don’t meet all the
PO Box 6100, Parliament House Canbem1ACT 2600
Ph: (02) 6277 3083 Email: ndis.sen@aph.gov.au Intemet: www.aph.gov.a1l(joint_ndis
conditions of registration, which M didn’t, namely the condition of providing Continuity of Support. Then later I tried to get a penalty unit fine like 250 penalty units which is a good amount of money but not enough to bankrupt M which has an income of $90 million a year which is heaps, and K said that’s not possible, and I said yes it is its in the Act. That is the penalty for not following the rules for being a registered provider, 250 penalty unit fine. I read the penalty unit section after I read Ann Marie who died’s provider got a $12,000 fine which is a very low fine, and it should have been higher, at least $50,000 or even more. Then K upset me by trying to explain why she wouldn’t find that M broke their obligations as Registered Providers. And lots of the things she said were lies that M told her. Some things were stupid she just made up like my supports weren’t essential because I only saw A for 2 hours a fortnight. That is not a definition anywhere of what isn’t an essential support. Plus M often don’t offer more than 2 hours a fortnight to clients. K reasons were also not logical and it was like she was just rambling off the top of her head because she wanted to close my complaint without de-registering M or fining them a penalty unit fine. I got upset and hanged up on K :hen. She should be more orderly and logical, and not make up reasons off the top of her head, and not believe M lies just because they do paperwork record keeping. I said that she could email me that she was closing the complaint and why, and then I would complain about her to whoever is next, which someone told me is the Ombudsman. I later emailed her that I only want to deal with her by email now, and I emailed her further info like the CEO of M got replaced, and also I found out M continued providing
POBox6100,ParliamentHouseCanbemtACT2600
Ph: (02) 6277 3083 Email: ndis.sen@aph.gov.au Intemet: W\o\W.aph.gov.au/joint_ndis
Personal submissions - cover sheet face to face supports for block funding programs but not NDIS funding programs. I don’t know what is happening with my complaint now though because K never replied to my emails after I hanged up on her and said I only want to communicate by email now.
So I am not satisfied that Q&S is doing a good job.
If they collected fines it would raise revenue and also keep providers in line more. And then the providers would realise Q&S means business, instead of being a toothless tiger.
Another related issue is the NDIS pricing, which does not favour big registered providers. The pricing structure favours small or individual providers who can charge the maximum hourly rate and don’t have as many overheads as the big businesses do. This is a stupid pricing structure unless the NDIS actually wants to destroy big disability providers, and fill the sector with small businesses and individuals with ABNs. How this stupid pricing structure is related to Q&S is that Q&S has most power over registered providers, and the big organisations are mostly registered. But if there is no pricing incentive to be registered, then Q&S don’t want to upset the big registered providers even more by fining and see-registering them, as they will drop out of the registration system, or even leave the NDIS part of the sector. So Q&S is too nice to the providers, to make up for the pricing structure favouring non-registered small and individual providers. As an example my social worker M worker A gets paid less than my non-qualified individual ABN workers who I choose to do social and recreational
PO Box 6100, Parliament House CanbeuaACT 2600
Ph: (02) 6277 3083 Email: ndis.sen@aph.gov.au Intemet: www.aph.gov.au/joint_ ndis
activities with. This is profoundly stupid and unfair to A who is very qualified. And M still are losing money and can’t make the NDIS work financially despite not paying A as much as my individual ABN workers get paid.
PO Box 6100, Parliament House Canberra ACT 2600
Ph: (02) 6277 3083 Email: ndis.sen@aph.gov.au Internet: www.aph.gov.au/joint_ndis