Latest Media Releases15 May 2018Improving access to printed products for people with disability

Australians with vision impairment, a physical disability or learning disability will be able to live independently, participate in education, and gain employment through a program that makes things easier to read.

15 May 2018National Disability Insurance Agency opens doors in Chermside

People living with disability in Brisbane and south east Queensland will be able to access information about the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) more easily following the opening of a new National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) office in Chermside.

Mother-of-two Suzie Robertson says she feels blackmailed and pressured by the National Disability Insurance Scheme review process.

Her son's claim has been under review for 15 months and she said the experience had been "momentous, stressful".

"The wheels began to fall off" when she was told she would only receive funding for one of her son's disabilities.

Ms Robertson said her son was worse off under the NDIS because he was unable access services he had previously been able to.

The NSW resident said she felt bullied by the process. 

"When we were speaking to the planner he was using language like 'You want a Mercedes Benz plan but your child is only eligible for a Mini Minor plan'," she said.

"I was really shocked that was said to us.

Read more:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-05-19/mother-feels-blackmailed-ndis-revi...

 

Are the NDIS planner on bonuses for refusing public service? Are they "incompetent" in detecting needs? who knows...

See also:

http://www.yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/34119

A Queensland MP who spoke out against the dumping of Jane Prentice has been summoned to appear before the LNP’s candidate review committee in a move described by supporters as “politically stupid payback”.

Michelle Landry is one of a group of MPs, including Trevor Evans, Warren Entsch and reportedly, George Christensen, who have been called before the review committee. All four have contradicted party lines, three on social issues, and one against the leadership.

Landry, who has represented Capricornia since 2013, openly criticised the decision to dump Prentice, one of the only women in the Turnbull ministry, and replace her with a male candidate in the safe-Liberal seat of Ryan.

 

Read more:

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/may/21/lnps-michelle-lan...

Josh Grey’s seizures pay no heed to time or place. They strike as he crosses the road. While he’s in the shower, or on the toilet. In the bus or his parents’ cars. 

Sometimes he falls rock-solid, stiff as a board, and smashes his head on the floor. 

His father, David Grey, has had to haul him from the bottom of his now-sealed backyard pool at his home in Hawthorn. 

 

Read more:

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/jun/06/gut-wrenching-the...

 

Read from top. The purpose of the Liberal (CONservative) modified NDIS is to provide employment to people — possibly "previously unemployable" psychopaths — specially trained to be blind to the need of those in need. It's a win-win for the government: save money by not paying out cash where it should and boost the employed numbers of expert "blind" people who will vote for Hitler at the next election, while appearing to employ disabled (psychos)...

 

Read from top and real also:

a safety net and not a hammock ...

The Australian Council of Social Services (Acoss) says the policies are driving people with a limited capacity to work either into poverty or on to the poverty-level Newstart. Single recipients of the DSP get about $$826 per fortnight. The single rate for Newstart is about $545.80. 

The Acoss executive, Cassandra Goldie, said one in four people on Newstart now had only a partial capacity to work.

“These policies increase rates of poverty in Australia,” Goldie said. “Being forced to live on Newstart is obviously devastating for people who are living with a disability, often acquired in the workplace, and who are struggling to find a job.

“We must urgently increase the rate of unemployment payment by at least $75 per week so that it does not leave people destitute.

“We must ensure people who need the DSP receive it. And we must do better in employing people with a disability.”

The payment is one of the larger components of the social security budget. It accounted for about 10.6% of social security spending in 2016-17. The policies were aimed at curtailing the expenditure by restricting the number of new recipients coming onto the scheme.

 

Read more:

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/jun/08/access-to-disabil...

 

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See also:

http://www.yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/34119

A man living with a disability who featured in ads across the country for the National Disability Insurance Scheme when it launched has had his own NDIS application rejected.

Jeremy Hawkes, 46, from Goonellabah in northern New South Wales, lives with Parkinsonism and chronic pain from a work-related spinal injury. In 2013, he was cast in a nationwide NDIS ad campaign.

Mr Hawkes said when he received a letter this year informing him that his application was rejected, he was devastated. 

"I was quite shocked, really quite shocked," he said.

"Everyone I'd spoken to assured me I'd have no issue, and I'd sent them such detailed medical reports — like 11 years of medical records describing my various issues."

 

Read more:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-07-25/ndis-poster-boy-has-own-applicatio...

 

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The difficulties arose after an accident six years ago in which Sharp, who could not speak to communicate her pain, suffered third-degree burns while being showered by a paid carer. 

She sought compensation from the care provider through the NSW supreme court, claiming the burns had caused new and lasting injuries along with significant psychological trauma, which required additional care. The compensation was to cover the additional care being provided by her family for free, including parental supervision during daily showers.

The parties agreed to settle in March, but the process was complicated by the NDIA’s insistence Sharp must use the compensation to pay back more than $100,000 of her NDIS funding. 

“It’s been really bad. I’ve been stressed out ... not sleeping. I just can’t believe this is happening,” Tegan’s mother, Narelle, told Guardian Australia. 

“I can understand if Tegan was hit by a bus and was entitled to compensation that way, but the thing that frustrates us is that she was always going to get NDIS, if she had the burns or not.”

The case prompted a scathing criticism from NSW supreme court justice Julia Lonergan, who found the NDIA had “no proper basis to claim any payback at all in the circumstances of this case”. 

“On any analysis, gratuitous care provided by the parents and family of Tegan in the past and future would fit the description of ‘general supports’ that are specifically excluded from funding by NDIS, and this should be excluded from payback,” Lonergan said. 

When asked to explain why they were requesting the money be paid back, the NDIA either did not respond or failed to address the points raised before the court. 

The NSW supreme court subpoenaed the NDIA, but the agency failed to produce documents or show up to court.

“It seems to me on one analysis, this could be considered to be contempt of this court’s process on the part of the NDIA,” Lonergan found. 

“I find it difficult to understand why an organisation constructed to assist in the funding and empowerment of people with disabilities to function in society, fails to respond to court process or to address proper, carefully considered correspondence from legal advisors to such persons.”

Read more:

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/sep/04/outrage-after-wom...

 

Read from top. Under the Liberal (CONservative) regime, NDIS has more lawyers than carers...

Mark Moodie is on the dole because he can not open his front door.

Key points:

• Mark Moodie became a quadriplegic in 2013 after falling from a motorbike in his son's backyard
• He is trying to secure a new wheelchair, an automated door and bathroom upgrades from the NDIA
• He estimates they would cost $73,000 and allow him to re-join the workforce

 

The 51-year-old quadriplegic has been rendered a prisoner inside his fourth-floor Darwin city apartment by a round, metallic doorhandle that is impossible for him to twist.

Yet the National Disability Insurance Agency has rejected his application to swap it for an automated alternative. 

Not only did that deny him a chance at some rare independence, but it poses a serious safety threat.

"If we did have a fire, I'm buggered," Mr Moodie said.

But his main frustration is that until he can leave his house, he can't get a job — a goal he has been striving towards for years and which would eventually reduce his reliance on the government agency. 

"I've still got a functioning brain. I can still get work. But I can't get out of my house to do it," he said.

"I hate being on the dole. And there's no reason why I should be.

 

Read more:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-05-04/ndia-rejections-ndis-quadriplegic...

 

See also: 

simply save the planet: don't vote for scott morrison and his intellectually deficient coal burning troop of liars...

 

 

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The National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), which supports some of the nation's most vulnerable people, is plagued with serious delays and is frustratingly difficult to understand, according to a review.

key points:

• A recommendation of the report was to extend the life of funding support for recipients from two to three years if their needs are "stable"
• People with disability reported poor experiences when working with NDIA staff
• Other recommendations include calls for more flexibility for how NDIS funds are used by recipients and measures to make funding plans easier to understand

 

The NDIS was heralded as a landmark program for Australians with a disability when it was established in 2013, but it has long been criticised as being bogged down in red tape and bureaucracy.

After the election in May 2019, the Federal Government commissioned former senior public servant David Tune to review the NDIS and the way it is managed by the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA). 

His report has now been released publicly and includes 29 recommendations on how to improve the program — including extending the life of funding support for recipients from two to three years if their needs are "stable".

"People with disability have reported frustrations about the administration of the NDIS by the NDIA," the report stated.

"Transparency, consistency and timeliness in decision-making are critical issues and people with disability have reported poor experiences when working with NDIA staff.

 

Read more:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-01-20/ndis-report-details-frustration-a...

 

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More than 20 disability organisations have called on the federal government to abandon a plan which they say will force people to explain their support needs to a stranger in less than three hours, or risk losing their NDIS funding.

Key points:

• Disability organisations say a proposal to introduce independent assessments is about "box-ticking" and cost cutting
• NDIS funding plans are currently determined by reports from medical professionals and specialists
• The government has rejected the notion that there has been no consultation on the reform

Draft legislation on the proposal to introduce independent assessments is due to be released shortly, with the reforms to come into effect in the middle of this year. 

All current National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) participants will need to undergo independent assessments of their disability, as well as anyone wanting to access the scheme.

An allied health professional, unknown to the person with disability, will meet with them to assess the level of support they need, in a meeting lasting between one and three hours.

The outcome will determine if they are eligible for an NDIS funding plan. 

In a statement posted on the Every Australian Counts website, people with disability, their families and advocates have accused the government of rushing the "tick-a-box" assessments because of a "desire to cut costs."

Sydney woman Melanie Tran, who lives with spinal muscular atrophy, said a "third party stakeholder" conducting an assessment would turn her "support needs into numbers." 

"In the three hours, you not only have to get to know the person but you also need to know how their disability impacts them and what support they have around them," Ms Tran said.

The 25-year-old said she worried the assessments would mean losing NDIS funding for her necessary supports.

"The introduction of the independent assessments almost seems like we are going backwards instead of going forwards," she said.

Previously, the determination of an NDIS funding plan was made on reports from medical professionals and specialists, which the person with disability was required to gather.

 

 

Read more:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-03-11/disability-organisations-against-ndis-independent-assessments/13233838

 

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Secret documents have cast doubt on the independence of a wide-ranging review into the National Disability Insurance Scheme that recommended the most radical overhaul of the $25 billion program since it was established.

Emails and draft copies of the 2019 report, written by former senior public servant David Tune, show National Disability Insurance Agency officials inserted an entire chapter into the review of the scheme’s legislation, and made substantial changes to almost every part of the document.

 

The review was used by the Morrison government to introduce independent assessments for NDIS participants, where health professionals employed by one of eight providers paid by the government will review users’ eligibility for the scheme. Disability advocates have labelled the measure a cost-cutting measure to reduce the number of people in the program.

More than 900 pages of documents, released under freedom of information laws, show emails from NDIA officials and Department of Social Services staff prioritising the NDIA board’s topics, “talking points” and inserting a multitude of changes to the draft versions of Mr Tune’s report.

 

One email, from an NDIA official, apologised that the changes to the document were “hideous – almost unreadable”.

The tracked changes appear to show the entire chapter devoted to introducing independent assessments – which was initially recommended by the Productivity Commission in 2011 – was also inserted by a public servant.

 

he planned overhaul to the system, revealed last month by The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, has enraged disability groups and state and territory ministers, who have accused the federal government of a “power grab” by removing their previous rights to veto changes to the scheme.

From mid-2021, independent assessments will be part of the process in which people are accepted into the scheme. By the end of the year, it will be used to review those already part of the scheme.

 

The three-hour appointments will be used to “determine the significance of a person’s disability”, the scheme’s website says, and help the agency make “fair and consistent decisions” about who is eligible for funding through the scheme.

 

The assessments will be conducted by a panel of private providers such as psychologists, occupational therapists, physiotherapists and speech pathologists – but not the person’s usual therapists.

It was revealed last year a survey to justify the introduction of independent assessments included just 35 National Disability Insurance Scheme participants. 

A coalition of 20 disability organisations issued a statement earlier this month warning the step could lead to false comparisons between individual NDIS participants. People with Disability Australia president Samantha Connor last month called for trials of independent assessments to be halted and for the government to instead engage in a “meaningful co-design process”.

 

A spokesman for newly appointed NDIS Minister, Linda Reynolds, said in a statement the review was conducted independently by Mr Tune and the government “respected his independence at all stages”.

“Mr Tune was provided with a small secretariat team to assist him in compiling the report, as is often the case with independent reviews of this complexity, but this in no way undermines his independence,” the spokesman said. Mr Tune was contacted for comment.

More than 400,000 Australians are being supported by the $25 billion scheme, which is jointly funded by the Commonwealth and state and territory governments.

 

Read more:

https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/secret-documents-show-department-inserted-chapter-into-ndis-review-20210402-p57g5s.html

 

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FREE JULIAN ASSANGE NOW !!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

 

Something is horribly amiss when thousands of Australians with serious disability have not received their first COVID shots eight weeks into the vaccine rollout.

The $25 billion scheme has been undergoing a radical rethink ever since it emerged that the so-called independent Tune review two years ago was shown to have been heavily doctored by the then-minister Stuart Robert’s department to pave the way for a cut in services and the imposition of unsympathetic compulsory assessments.

There is mounting evidence, much of it from leaks coming from within the federal public service and some from freedom-of-information releases, that the Morrison government views the National Disability Insurance Scheme in the same way as it views anyone on welfare.

 

Welfare is a dirty word and most receiving it should be starved off it as soon as possible – surely this is the only credible explanation for returning unemployment benefits to below the poverty line.

Though in the past the Prime Minister has been quick to make the distinction between welfare recipients and support due to those who through no fault of their own suffer a disability, his government’s approach is eroding the credibility of his words.

One of the early architects of the NDIS under the previous Labor government, Bill Shorten, says planned changes under Mr Robert that include Robodebt-style harassment of people in the scheme fundamentally alters its original purpose and design.

Rather than seeing those with disability as hapless victims of fate, they are now to be viewed through the “welfare cheat” prism.

The secretly planned changes, revealed at the weekend in The Saturday Paper, manifest a fundamental distrust of those with disability, who the Parliament of Australia has accorded the right to receive the support they need to live their lives with as much dignity as possible.

Many in the sector are now hoping that the new minister Linda Reynolds will abandon Mr Robert’s narrow and punitive preferences.

Senator Reynolds, however, is accepting none of the blame for the fact that people with disability have been forgotten in the first phase of the vaccine rollout despite the acceptance they are among the most vulnerable in the pandemic.

Senator Reynolds’ office says the rollout is the responsibility of Health Minister Greg Hunt and she will be discussing the delivery failure with him.

 

The chief executive of Aruma, one of the nation’s largest disability service providers, Andrew Richardson, told the ABC it is “shameful” not one of the 1500 residents in their 350 specialist accommodation homes, nor any of their “thousands of staff has been vaccinated”.

Mr Richardson says his organisation’s experience is common across the sector.

 

Mr Shorten says the “rollout has been one big car crash and somehow people with disability miss out again”.

Chief medical officer Paul Kelly on Monday morning said he would be contacting Aruma, but just what he can do about it is far from clear.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has given up on telling Australians he has everything under control.

Mr Morrison took the highly unusual step of using Facebook to announce he was abandoning targets for when Australia would be fully vaccinated, after making the highly dubious claim that we are world leading. Australia is No.100 on the list of 170 countries for the coverage of its rollout so far.

Shadow health minister Mark Butler says Australians deserve to know there is a plan to reach the target of nationwide vaccination, but you can’t “have a plan without targets”.

Targets may change and that’s when the PM needs to be upfront about it, Mr Butler says, to restore business confidence.

And those with disability deserve an explanation for why they have been ignored in the first phase of the rollout and assurances they have not lost the respect Scott Morrison used to claim he was giving them.

 

Paul Bongiorno AM is a veteran of the Canberra Press Gallery, with 40 years’ experience covering Australian politics

 

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