'Profoundly irresponsible': How the NDIS is failing the autistic

By bobb |

Madeleine Ryan

I am autistic and much of the terminology that’s used to describe autism often feels confusing, and disempowering.

Although the subject is frequently in the news and being talked about the diagnostics coined by doctors, professors and scientists in relation to it are often disconnected from my life, and the lives of autistic adults and children. All the puzzling terms, labels and categories can make it harder for us to receive help when we need it and harder for the rest of the world to understand us.

On spectrum of needs, NDIS should axe ASD

By bobb |

Warning: it is best to not read the following. This article contains factual errors, prejudice and poor journalism. It is on this website as part of the history of autism in Australian media ... and to show the level of profound ignorance about ASD in much of the Australian community. For example, the claim below that "the vast majority are on low levels of the spectrum" is contrary to available data published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics showing most people diagnosed with ASD have sever or profound disability. She's a serial offender: see http://a4.org.au/node/1218

In 2013 I wrote an Inquirer piece asking: What are the practical economic restraints on disability services in a society with an ever expanding notion of disability? Where do we draw the line? Who will and who won’t be eligible for assistance under the National Disability Insurance Scheme?

Defining moment for National Disability ­Insurance Scheme

By bobb |

Rick Morton

Rob De Luca isn’t ready to speak with you yet.

The young, newly installed chief executive in charge of the $22 billion National Disability ­Insurance Scheme was adamant he didn’t want a public email when he took over the reins in August last year.

He uses a made-up first name, keeping the address off the books because he doesn’t want ­direct emails from “normal mums and dads, agency staff and participants”, according to one disgruntled staff member.

Mild autism cases are not the NDIS’s core concern

By bobb |

The Australian (editorial)

The following are the (unAustralian) views of The Australian newspaper's editorial staff. A4 rejects these views.

The National Disability Insurance Agency has made a prudent call in deciding that some autism sufferers will no longer qualify automatically for assistance under its $22 billion scheme. On Saturday, Rick Morton reported that officials are endeavouring to rein in costs by paring back the number of people with autism receiving funding packages. Among National Disability Insurance Scheme participants, 29 per cent have autism. Autism is the single biggest condition listed among the 30,000 children aged 14 and under. Of these, almost half are regarded as high-functioning with a “low level of disability”. However fraught, now is the time to resolve eligibility issues before the NDIS reaches full rollout in 2020, when it is set to serve 475,000 people.

NDIS bid to restrict access by rewriting rules on autism

By bobb |

Rick Morton

A radical plan to alter the definition of autism will be the cornerstone of a push to restrict access to the $22 billion National Disability Insurance Scheme, which could see thousands of people with substantial support needs removed from the system entirely.

The agency in charge says the proposed redesign will dismantle the idea of an autism “spectrum” — an idea coming back in vogue globally — and place people into specific “subtypes” based on individual characteristics.

Autism advocates blast proposed 'cutbacks' to NDIS access

By bobb |

David Wroe

Autism groups have expressed shock and disappointment at reports the agency administering the National Disability Insurance Scheme is looking to cut the number of autistic people who are virtually guaranteed of qualifying for support.

Advocates said they believed the National Disability Insurance Agency was working on plans to rein in costs by changing the qualification criteria so that many people would have to be individually assessed to determine their need for support.

Autism to face cutbacks in NDIS as secret plan revealed

By bobb |

Rick Morton

A secret plan to restrict the access of autistic people to the $22 billion National Disability Insurance Scheme would prevent them from qualifying “automatically” for taxpayer-funded support as part of a sweeping overhaul to rein in costs.

The Weekend Australian has confirmed bureaucrats have been working on a strategy since late last year to pare back the number of people with autism receiving funding packages.

NDIS legal bill hitting $10m a year

By bobb |

The agency running the ­$22 billion National Disability ­Insurance Scheme is spending up to $10 million a year on barristers and legal services in a bid to arrest the dramatic rise in the number of people successfully appealing for more money in their support packages or trying to get into the scheme.

The agency has been explicit in its fears over the future of the scheme, saying the risk to its ­financial stability is “extreme” from unfavourable court and tribunal decisions that have the ­potential to “vastly increase the scope of both access and reasonable and necessary supports”.

'Set up to fail': Canberra's NDIS drop out rate soars as calls grow for overhaul

By bobb |
ACT MLA Michael Pettersson at the first day of the inquiry on Friday. Photo: Dion Georgopoulos

Sherryn Groch

Canberrans are leaving the National Disability Insurance Scheme at the highest rate in the country, as services and advocates in the ACT call for an overhaul of the scheme's internal bureaucracy.

Between September and December 2017, 139 people joined the scheme in the ACT but 101 others left. Figures provided by the National Disability Insurance Agency, which runs the scheme, confirmed 381 Canberrans had exited the NDIS since 2013.

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