roundsquared submission to Joint Standing Committee on the National Disability Insurance Scheme: Sept 2019

The National Disability Insurance Scheme was heralded as the most significant social policy initiative since the introduction of Medicare in the 1980s. Six years on from the NDIS Act 2013 receiving Royal Assent, the Scheme is falling short on its promises to people with disability and their families/carers. For many, however, the NDIS has been a minefield of bureaucratic inconsistencies and incompetence as planners and local area coordinators (LACs) fail to provide a person-centred approach to the planning process.

From roundsquared’s perspective, the current NDIS planning processes are not informed by a human rights framework. Rather they are increasingly underwritten by an insurance paradigm focussing on data collection; the need for increasing evidence of disability with undertones that the participant is ‘ripping off’ the system; and reducing funding obligations for services and supports by:

Placing increasing burdens of support on families and other informal supports;
Reducing core supports to children under 15 years under the guise that such supports are a parental responsibility;
Failing to be transparent when claiming a support is not ‘reasonable and necessary’;
Failing to advise participants that their application for a s48 review has been unsuccessful;
Letting the wait times for s48 reviews continue to blow-out to a point where it is now 9 months; and
Coming to an agreement with a participant or their representative just prior to an AAT hearing to avoid a precedent being created by a successful appeal.

Download a copy of the full submission

Link to the Joint Standing Committee webpage