NDIS - How did they get it so wrong?

We are a huge supporter for the CONCEPT of the NDIS.

It is supposed to bring respect and dignity to people with disabilities and their families.

And enabled these people to lead a better life with choice and control.

Sadly, the NDIS is bringing frustration, bullying, crisis’s and suspicion to this group. As if they didn't have enough to deal with before!

No-one could have envisioned a system worse than the old system, but boy, the way the NDIS is operating, this is exactly what has appeared for way too many people. They are randomly stomping on vulnerable peoples lives and making a huge mess.

Because of the insane staffing caps the Gov has put on the NDIS, planners are bullying clients, treating them as a pest, insisting on meetings happening – whether the participant is ready or not – just so they can TRY to reach unreachable KPIs and burning out.

There is no follow-up for a participant or their nominee once they have completed the planning meeting.

On many occasions, they don't even get a copy of what the LAC is going to submit! 

The next piece of communication is when they receive the NDIS approved plan and it is final unless you submit a review!

So the participant has no right to see whether the LAC has correctly captured their situation, they don't sign off on the plan, they have no safety net if the plan is completely inadequate ( if they were already getting funded services) and they are not entitled to see the paper trail to see where the failure came from when preparing a review...

LAC’s are discouraging self-management.  Annual reviews are falling short of participant needs (even when the previous years funding was all used up). There is no consistancy from one planner to the next.

COME ON….REALLY

It is not that hard to do better, and it won’t even cost anything – in fact, if the NDIA includes the participant/ nominee more the planning process, there will be less reviews and that will mean less money being spent and less staff hours being spent on reviews that could easily have been prevented.

We don’t need another crisis driven disability sector.


If you need any help with your plan, contact iDareU at: connect@idareu.org.au