The scandal-plagued disability sector will get $22 billion from the federal government this financial year, but an independent review found the system left vulnerable people open to harm and neglect. Mr Shorten said NDIS Minister Stuart Robert had presided over a “toothless and sleepy” watchdog that in reality is “more like a very expensive purse poodle”.
The government is appointing independent assessors to review everyone on the National Disability Insurance Scheme to ensure the funding is fairly distributed and not just given to “those who can pay the most for a report”.
This was the second session of the Advocacy Sector Conversations forum held on Zoom webinar for the first time, on 29 July 2020 (due to COVID-19 event restrictions not allowing large gatherings). Yvette Maker, Senior Research Associate, Melbourne Social Equity Institute (University of Melbourne) is part of the research team who has been working with essential and basic service providers, people with cognitive disability, and their representative organisations to develop tools to promote the consumer rights of people with cognitive disability.
There is concern in Australia’s disability community that an overhaul of the National Disability Insurance Scheme could make it harder for people to access the program and lead to instances of self harm, including suicide.
The NDIS funding model provides a one size fits all approach, making it difficult for good quality group supports to survive and thrive, and for new ones to evolve. In recent months we have conducted cost analysis for a range of providers of group programs. The results painted a bleak picture.
Advocates are welcoming substantial changes to the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) which they believe will make the system quicker and easier to navigate.
More than 700 people with disability and their families filled out the survey that asked about your experiences during the first wave of the Coronavirus pandemic. What impact did the pandemic have on your lives? How did you cope and what you thought of the changes made to the NDIS during this time?
The problems raised were the usual issues – confusing, changing and inconsistent information, lengthy delays, lack of flexibility, poor treatment at the hands of Local Area Coordinators or NDIA staff. These issues are bad enough at the best of times. But in the middle of a global pandemic they stood in the way of people with disability getting what they needed to stay safe and well.
The Federal Government’s emergency response plan to COVID-19 made no mention of people living with a disability, a royal commission has heard. Senior Counsel Assisting Kate Eastman SC said people with a disability and their advocates “watched and waited” for the Government to come up with a plan. But people living with disability were conspicuously absent.
People with disability and their families felt forgotten amid the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic and many struggled to make ends meet, new research shows.
The report, released this week by Ombudsman Michael Manthorpe, focuses on the agency’s handling of requests for assistive technologies and is part of several reviews by the Ombudsman into the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS). Since the NDIS was rolled out in 2013, the number of complaints about the agency received by the Commonwealth Ombudsman has increased each year.
The take home message is that it was always possible, all the time that employers where saying it was not. It is a form of ableism in the sense that it’s concentrating on that proportion of society who fit within a particular norm.”
In an historic new partnership between government and indigenous organisations, the Closing the Gap program is undergoing a major reset. A key Indigenous group is disappointed that disability has not been included in the 16 new Closing the Gap targets. While disability is a significant issue in health, education, justice and employment, it hasn’t been included as a target.
Data is an important element for measuring the scale of abuse and violence faced by people with disability in Australia, but there isn’t enough available, researchers say.
People with disability are facing financial hardship and going days without food during the COVID-19 pandemic, new research reveals. A survey from People with Disability Australia (PWDA) found that nine in 10 people with disability have experienced increased expenses due to the ongoing pandemic.
NDIS Minister Stuart Robert is planning to introduce the proposed powers to federal parliament within the next two weeks. The NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission would be able to draw on sources outside the scheme to determine a ban, including a worker’s history at aged or child care centres. People with Disability Australia spokeswoman El Gibbs said the new powers would be the first step towards improving safeguards in the NDIS.