As a former National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) staffer, who went on to create My Plan Manager from her kitchen table in 2014, our founder, Claire Wittwer-Smith, knows the NDIS inside and out. That’s why we asked her about the latest NDIS review, what it means for participants, and why you should get involved.
A quick recap: Bill Shorten, Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme, announced a review into the NDIS in October 2022. The review, led by Professor Bruce Bonyhady AM and Lisa Paul AO, has the goal of putting people with disability back at the centre of the NDIS and restoring trust, confidence and pride in the Scheme.
The review will have two parts:
Claire says this review is a chance for the Scheme to come back to its roots.
“The NDIS is based on those principles of fairness and equity for all, and that everyone has the opportunity to develop to their full potential – which is what we’re aligned to here at My Plan Manager,” Claire says.
“I don’t think the Scheme has been achieving what it was set out to do, but I don’t think it’s easy either, and I don’t think it can achieve that for everyone with one implementation of the Scheme.”
Much like Minister Shorten, Claire says all participants should have their say in this review, because it’s the voices, opinions, and experiences of people with disability that are the most valuable. As the saying goes, ‘nothing about us without us’.
“People with disability know the experience and know their disabilities better than anyone else. That’s why you are the key to the design, and I think Minister Shorten has really demonstrated that he wants to hear from you,” she says. “He’s demonstrated that with half of the NDIA board being people with disability. The legislation was written by people with disability and it still is a beautiful piece of legislation.”
“Find the easiest way to share your voice – whether that’s by video, a voice recording, in writing, or telling a story about your experience. I’d urge you to do that. They want to hear from you by the end of the year (though you can tell them if you need more time) and you can have your say online at https://www.ndisreview.gov.au/have-your-say/have-your-say-online.”
Minister Shorten has said that changes will be happening while the review is ongoing – it won’t be held up unnecessarily.
The review will look at:
Claire’s vision for the NDIS is for it to be a true insurance scheme and for it to be recognised as that – the NDIS isn’t welfare, she says.
She offers the example of ensuring early access to funding for children, without the administrative burden of obtaining a diagnosis and joining the Scheme. By trusting families and professionals to use funding in a nimble way to get support for children, the NDIS allows for targeted early intervention, which may prevent those children from needing to formally join the Scheme down the track.
“The whole model of the insurance scheme was built on both the social and economic return on investment – if you give a mother, who was previously caring for her 20-year-old son, the ability to employ someone to support that young man, you enable her to go back to work,” she says.
“That creates more taxpayers – the support staff for the young man and the mother back in the workforce. And, best of all, you give people back their relationships. They go back to being mother and son again, caring as part of that relationship, but not the whole relationship.
“I would like people to have more certainty about what their package is going to be, based on their functional capacity, year after year. I hate participants being beholden to a planner who might change their budget. If we allocate payments on a tiered system there is transparency and certainty and the ability for participants to move forward, rather than spending their whole lives justifying why they are entitled to payments from the insurance scheme.
“At the moment, the system has created a situation where you’re not going to get the same funding unless you say you haven’t improved. I believe there should be set packages based on functional capacity and then, if you have a specific goal in mind, you could apply for extra funding for a short period of time. Start giving ownership back to the individual.”
Overall, the NDIS is the envy of the world when it comes to disability support. Claire says the review is the chance to get it back on track.
“This is a time for Australia to be really proud of how brave we were to implement a Scheme like this, it’s world class,” she says.
“The last 10 years haven’t been easy or perfect, but we have the opportunity with this review to look at how we can ensure the brilliant legislation is realised and the operations of the NDIA enable the success of the Scheme.”
