‘Quick and dirty’ NDIS review faces backlash from disability advocates

By bobb |
siloette - man in wheelchair looking outside

Stephen Lunn

A “quick and dirty” review of the $35bn-a-year National Disability ­Insurance Scheme will not ­address its longstanding problems in time to meet national cabinet’s hard cost-control targets set for three years from now, advocates have warned, signalling a fresh battle over its future.

Bloated NDIS encourages providers to keep children in care: experts

By bobb |

Tom Burton

Governments need to stop encouraging private providers to find repeat customers in the care sector and make a paradigm shift to a model that builds in support across the disability, aged care and rehabilitation sectors, social policy experts say.

A new paper from the Actuaries Institute said care economy models that sought to create a private marketplace of services which governments fund, meant there was little incentive to get people off publicly funded support.

NDIS future depends on states providing more mainstream disability support: Bruce Bonyhady

By bobb |
hands make a heart (love) shape, on forearms with coloured puzzle pieces

Stephen Lunn

The future of the National Disability Insurance Scheme depends on state and local governments stepping up to provide community-wide services for the millions of Australians with disability who don’t qualify for the scheme, the head of the NDIS review warns.

This is particularly so for children with developmental concerns and delay, who should be receiving “foundational supports” through maternal and child health services, early childhood education and schools, Bruce Bonyhady said.

NDIS creating winners and losers among children with autism, says institute

By bobb |
Hamds making heart shape - with autism puzzle-pieces imagery superimposed on skin of arms

Stephen Lunn 

The National Disability Insurance Scheme has “medicalised” autism and created winners and losers among children with the condition and developmental delay, giving providers incentives to ensure children remain dependent on therapeutic support, and threatening the $35bn-a-year scheme’s financial sustainability, the Actuaries Institute warns.

National Disability Insurance Agency accused of ‘failing’ young children with autism

By bobb |
NDIS front door

Stephanie Convery

Committee hears every family Autism Partnerships Australia worked with who challenged their NDIS funding rejection was eventually approved for intensive support

The National Disability Insurance Agency is failing young children severely affected by autism by rejecting their claims for intensive support funding only to do an about-face after families have spent months in a lengthy, expensive tribunal process, a parliamentary committee has heard.

One mum’s advice to Bill Shorten on how to save money in the NDIS

By bobb |
Ben enjoying a tinny ride with mum on the Hawkesbury River.

Lynda Fallon

As the cost of the NDIS balloons, and the government looks for ways to make savings, one battle-weary mum offers some budgeting suggestions.

Dear Mr Shorten, firstly, I want to say thank you for the NDIS. It’s a scheme with the very best of intentions to give people like my son, Ben, their best chance at fulfilling their potential — and I love that we are lucky enough to live in a country where people in power care.

NDIS says diagnosis of autism may have ‘unforeseen consequences’, Kurt Fearnley warns

By bobb |
Kurt Fearnly in wheelchair on athletics track

 

Stephen Lunn, SOCIAL AFFAIRS EDITOR, MELBOURNE

The need for a diagnosis of autism early in a child’s life to secure NDIS support may have “unforeseen consequences” as they face the long-term stigma of being labelled disabled, National Disability Insurance Agency chair Kurt Fearnley says.

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