NewsThe NDIS is making some changes
The CEO of the NDIA sent a letter to all NDIS Participants on Tuesday, June 06. It was sent to Participants through the online portal, and it was also put up on the NDIS website.
The letter was very long, and used a lot of terms that might be hard for people to understand. We've summarised what we think it means below.
Plain language summary
We know there have been problems with the NDIS. We know lots of people are unhappy. We know they're frustrated that the NDIS is not working the way they think it should.
We want that to change.
So, we've been meeting and talking to lots of different people. We have been talking to both people with disability and service providers. They have come up with lots of different ways we can make things better. We've been given lots of different ideas to think about. Some of those ideas are about the portal. Some of those ideas are about how we can make the planning process better for people. Some of those ideas are about other things altogether.
Now we have to figure out how we can turn these ideas into action. We want to test some of the ideas to see how they work in practice.
First, we will test the new ideas with a small group of people. When we are sure these ideas are strong and will work well in practice we will make the changes for everyone in the scheme.
We can’t say much more than that right now. This is all going to take some time, so we are asking everyone to please be patient for a little longer.
We also want to say that there have been lots of stories in the media about people having money cut from their NDIS packages. It is important for you to know that these stories are not true. We are not trying to cut funding. The amount of support a person can get through NDIS is still based on what is regarded as "reasonable and necessary".
We want things to get much better, as soon as possible. We know everyone wants to work together to make sure the NDIS is the best it can be. That's really important to people with disability and their families.
We’ll keep you posted.
You can find the original statement from David Bowen, CEO of the NDIA here.
News articles:
NDIS needs changes, NDIA failed to meet standards and expectations, CEO says
ABC News, June 06
Breaking: NDIA vows to “get it right”
Every Australian Counts, June 06