NDIS enrolments surging, but at what expense?
Posted
The number of people joining the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) jumped dramatically in the last three months of 2016, according to official figures.
Key points:
- The NDIA is under pressure to keep its enrolment targets on track
- The latest figures are a big turnaround for enrolment rates
- Disability advocates fear the push to meet targets could come at the cost of quality
Close to 26,000 people signed on — three times the number who joined in the previous quarter.
"We see it as a really positive step," said Maryanne Diamond, from the agency that runs the scheme, the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA).
Ms Diamond is the spokeswoman for the NDIA's quarterly reports.
The latest numbers are a big turnaround from the first quarterly report of the scheme's "transition" phase, when only 7,400 new participants were enrolled. That was well below initial targets.
"In the first quarter ... the number was far less than what had been hoped [for] and expected," Ms Diamond said.
"We acknowledge there were a number of challenges that were faced."
Many of those trying to join the scheme said the NDIS web portal often did not work.
Other complaints included difficulty in reaching the agency over the phone, and planning meetings where scheme participants' goals and objectives were ignored.
The agency said the problems were being addressed.
"We changed the way we did things to assist in getting more people on," Ms Diamond said.
The NDIA is under pressure to keep its enrolment targets on track. In the year to July 2017, the NDIS is supposed to enrol 120,000 new participants.
By full roll-out in two years' time, the NDIS is expected to have 460,000 participants.
But disability advocates have said the focus on enrolment numbers has a cost.
"One of the downsides of the agency focussing purely on targets ... has been at the expense of the quality of the plans," said Therese Sands, the director of the peak body Disabled People's Organisations Australia.
Ms Sands said her organisation was aware of many complaints.
"About the quality of plans, about the process of how they're being conducted, through phone interviews as opposed to direct face-to-face ... we are concerned about that," she said.
The NDIA conceded there was now a greater use of phone plans. But it said scheme participants were always given other options.
"It is correct that phone planning is being used a lot," said Ms Diamond.
"We continually say to people if they're unable to do a meeting by a telephone, we understand that."
Ms Diamond said it was important that the NDIS do everything it can to enrol participants into the scheme quickly.
"If we slow things down by a lot ... people could spend many years waiting," she said.
"We recognise for some people it's been a challenge ... but we need to remember that more than 61,000 people are on the scheme. And large numbers of them are receiving services that they may never have had before in their lives."
Topics: disabilities, health, health-policy, health-insurance, federal-government, government-and-politics, australia
