A mother from the Ballarat suburb of Delacombe says National Disability Insurance Scheme planners refused to assess her daughter’s needs in person, citing lack of funds.

Gayle Bird, whose 23-year-old daughter Tori has the mental age of a three to five year-old-child, said planners insisted only her daughter could answer questions about her disability.

Her claims run counter to National Insurance Agency policy which entitles all clients to face-to-face meetings.

Rick Morton

More than 1200 families have had their National Disability Insurance Scheme packages expire without a further plan in place — many without warning — as the agency responsible scrambles to confront a litany of planning problems at a critical time in its history.

The figure was provided by the National Disability Insurance Agency when questioned. However, the agency, which runs the $22 billion NDIS, suggested every family whose plan had expired had been uncontactable, despite evidence to the contrary.

Henrietta Cook & Timna Jacks

Sometimes when Angus arrived at school, his classroom was empty.

All the students were on an excursion, except for him.

"They kept the excursions a secret," the 12-year-old says. "I wasn't even told about them. It made me sad, and sometimes I got mad."

Desperate parents are shopping for a label for their children's disability in a bid to secure vital classroom support.

In order to satisfy rigid funding rules, parents of students with high-functioning autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder are seeking a diagnosis of severe behaviour disorder.

Psychiatrists say the latter is a label that applies to students who cause intolerable disturbances in class.

Miki Perkins

"It was supposed to offer hope, but that's just been trashed".

It's not the way you'd expect the head of one of Victoria's peak disability groups to describe Australia's rapidly growing national scheme for people with disabilities. Alexander Curotte, 31, has become withdrawn and depressed since the switch to the NDIS, his parents say. Photo: Justin McManus

But Kevin Stone has had a gutful. At every meeting he goes to, the stories are the same.

AGRON LATIFI

Kayla Sterchow had lots of reasons to celebrate on Thursday when she turned 20.

But she couldn’t get her “traumatic’’  high school years in the Illawarra out of her head.

Bullied by other students and kicked out of seven schools, the University of Canberra student was constantly told by teachers she “wouldn’t get anywhere in life’’ because of her autism.

Rick Morton

The executives of the flagship ­National Disability Insurance Scheme, which received guaranteed funding worth tens of billions of dollars in last week’s budget, have launched a crackdown on support funding to keep a lid on ballooning costs.

Two teenagers accused of using a replica pistol to "scare" a boy with severe autism as they tried to rob him outside a north Canberra supermarket went home to watch a television show about serial killer Ivan Milat, court documents allege.

The boys, aged 16 and 17, each faced the ACT Childrens' Court charged with attempted aggravated robbery using an offensive weapon on Monday. Neither has entered pleas.

Court documents said witnesses called police after two teenagers approached the boy outside Woolworths at Dickson shortly before 7pm on Sunday.

Cathy O'Leary

Kathy Lette believes there are a lot of men with undiagnosed autism out there.

The London-based author and feminist, who is in Perth to speak to parents of children with autism, argues that with one in 68 people on the spectrum, autism could be defined as “an extreme form of maleness”.

“Just look at your husbands who are trainspotters or plane spotters, keep their records in alphabetical order and are socially awkward,” she said.