• Daniel Burdon

More than 1000 Canberrans with a disability are at risk of missing out on National Disability Insurance Scheme support as the Territory and federal governments argue over which government should fund more places after a target of 5075 people was reached last month.

While the scheme was originally promised to be delivered to all Australians with a permanent and severe disability, it seems funding for places was capped at the 5075 "target" built into the original deal between the ACT and federal governments; a figure reached at the end of last month.

The review concluded:

To date, there is no evidence that hyperbaric oxygen therapy improves core symptoms and associated symptoms of ASD. It is important to note that adverse effects (minor-grade ear barotrauma events) can occur. Given the absence of evidence of effectiveness and the limited biological plausibility and possible adverse effects, the need for future RCTs of hyperbaric oxygen therapy must be carefully considered.

This really suggests that further research is likely to be too risky.

The following is an brief exchange of emails between Bob Buckley and Andrew Barr MLA ... very soon before the 2016 ACT election.

This is an important matter for the whole nation, not just the Australian Capital Territory and South Australia.

Thank you for your very quick response. I hope you are right.

In South Australia, the NDIA stopped accepting new clients during their trial ... while we were told the scheme was meant to be uncapped, that turned out to be false.

regards

Bob Buckley

On 13/10/2016 9:16 PM, BARR wrote:

The National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) is being accused of blocking people from taking part in the program, despite it being uncapped.

The ACT Government said the Commonwealth agency rolling out the NDIS had told people in Canberra with disabilities it would not meet with them.

It was originally estimated 5,075 people in the territory would eventually be eligible for the scheme. That number has already been reached.

The National Disability Insurance Agency has reportedly stopped accepting new NDIS participants on to the Scheme in the Australian Capital Territory. The halt was shared on Facebook by ACT advocacy service ADACAS, which noted it had a number of people impacted by the stop work.

RICK MORTON, Social Affairs reporter

The $22 billion national disability insurance scheme has reached total capacity in the ACT less than half a year after full rollout in the region and new participants who are eligible for support are being turned away,