Thousands of Australians with disabilities fought for decades to get NDIS put in place. The difference the scheme has made in people's lives over the past few years is almost immeasurable. People who couldn't get funding now can and participants like myself have the opportunity to go to different providers or even different states much easier.
Growing up with funding models that made me rank my disability I missed out on the appropriate funding level because I scored highly on the physical disability components yet did not have the accompanying cognitive and intellectual disabilities.
When the Morrison Government announced the new independent assessments, a chill went down my spine. I immediately heard echoes of my past. The way the new independent assessment tools were explained to me it sounded like a tick and flick way of getting participants less funding.
Architects of the NDIS Scheme have said that the new approach is a way for the government to save up to 700 million dollars and reduce the size of participants' supports.
How might they do this you ask? The government will engage independent assessors not known to the participant to do a tick and flick questionnaire which then sets the budget for the participant's plan. This budget cannot be challenged. As opposed to the current assessment criteria where supporting evidence is provided through reports from doctors and allied health professionals who have worked with the participant for a longer period of time.
People with disabilities fear blowing up the scheme in this way could lead to deaths. I, along with every person with a disability in this country, asked Minister Linda Reynolds to keep her hands off our NDIS because I am not standard.
I Am Not Standard
Access to NDIS shouldn't be decided by a standardised test
Because how does a questionnaire know what suits my disability best?
Why does pinching pennies have to leave me stranded?
Just because I am not standard.
I have a name but now I am just a numbered participant.
How can a code explain all the challenges I have been sent?
My disability does not go away just by magic one day.
Every time I am reassessed, I fear I will end up with less and end up depressed.
How dare you take away my support and cheapen everything for which I fought?
I wish that I was born somewhat more uniform.
That way it would not seem like a National Disappointment Scheme.
I know you love your reasonable and necessary framework but I am outside your lines which leaves me stranded because I am not standard.
© Chris Van Ingen | 6 May 2021
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