Newcastle
Herald Sun,
31 May 2019:
AT least 3000 NDIS
recipients from regional NSW and Victoria will have to find new care providers
after mutual company Australian Unity decided to cut back on disability
services to concentrate on aged care in Sydney.
Australian Unity
confirmed the decision after concerns were raised with the Newcastle
Herald by the Public Service Association.
It did not dispute an
assertion by PSA regional organiser Paul James that the decision was a
consequence of the financial pressures facing NDIS providers.
The decision comes just
three years after Australian Unity bought the NSW Government's Home Care agency
in February 2016, picking up 4000 former government employees and 50,000 aged
care and disability clients.
Australian Unity said it
would "work closely" with the National Disability Insurance Agency
(NDIA) to ensure NDIS participants found "another service provider of
their choice".
It said 57,000 clients
on aged care packages would not be affected.
It did not expect the
NDIS decision to cause job losses but Mr James questioned how this could be.
"Even if they say
the majority of their clients are unaffected, there's still 3000 people in
regional areas who will have to find new providers," Mr James said.
"The NDIS was
originally supposed to be helping people with disabilities into work, but
instead it's become an opportunity for the states to ditch their
responsibilities for disability services."
Australian Unity said
the decision to "scale down" its NDIS services came after a review of
its "Home and Disability Services" business - as it renamed the
former Home Care agency.
According to
the Dept.
of Human Services (recently renamed Services Australia) In NSW as of 31 March
2019:
101,963 people
have a NDIS service;
4,219 initial
plans have been approved; and
34,397 people
will be receiving services for the first time.
While according
to the National
Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), 12 April 2019:
There are now 250,000 participants nationwide;
Almost one in three of these participants are receiving
disability supports and services for the first time; and
Costs to NDIS clients for individual service delivery have
risen between 10.9 per cent and 20.4 per cent from 1 July.
This price rise will include a minimum rise of almost $11 per hour for therapists, and up to a 15.4% price increase to the base limit for attendant care and community participation and appears to be driven by the demands of service providers.
The number of NDIS participants is set to rise to 460,000 at full roll-out in 2020.
This price rise will include a minimum rise of almost $11 per hour for therapists, and up to a 15.4% price increase to the base limit for attendant care and community participation and appears to be driven by the demands of service providers.
The number of NDIS participants is set to rise to 460,000 at full roll-out in 2020.
…delays
in the rollout of NDIS plans, the bureaucratic maze that even the most capable
of carers or people with disability struggle to get through, and the
difficulties that people with plans have in accessing services that are not
there have
resulted in long wait times and crisis intervention is virtually non-existent.
Due to the
demand for home care packages, for most people, the expected wait time for
approved packages is:
 |
| www.myagedcare.gov.au |
The expected wait time for the level of interim package you agree to receive (while waiting for your approved level to be assigned) is:
 |
| www.myagedcare.gov.au |
The conclusions drawn was that the NDIS scheme was administratively under-resourced for the rollout task, however there were a number of areas where NDIA could improve its administration of participant-initiated reviews. Otherwise the review process would remain unwieldy, unapproachable and the driver of substantial complaint volumes.
If you are in New South Wales and have a complaint about a support or service you have received under the NDIS, you can contact the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission.
No comments:
Post a Comment