The following statement may be attributed to CEO Andrew Chesterman.
We support much of what was announced, to bring the NDIS back to a sustainable footing, focused on people with significant and permanent disability, digital payments and particularly provider registration.
We look forward to sector consultation on the development of an objective functional capacity assessment tool for eligibility.
But I am concerned by what the Minister didn’t say.
We’ve seen not-for-profit disability organisations around Australia failing over the past year, because they can’t hold on until reform comes.
Charity organisations like Endeavour Foundation are the backbone of the NDIS, supporting people with complex disability.
The focus of the latest reforms is to save money, and while that is needed, the core of the scheme should be to protect quality care for people with the greatest need.
Among many reductions I also note there was a focus on plan reassessments being restricted to only 15% of participants per annum.
This may seem like an easy cut but there are serious hidden dangers.
People with a disability may have to deal with significant changes to their living arrangements or serious health / disability issues that arise. This is usually when we ask for a reassessment. There are no emergency pathways for this, and the NDIA takes up to 9 months to respond to these situations.
Charity providers already carry people through these situations, picking up the shortfall to ensure they are safe, at our loss.
If the NDIA stops responding to reassessments, we will see serious safety risks and even more not for profit providers will fail.
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