JOIN THE CAMPAIGN

Disability Intermediaries Australia has joined other peak bodies and organisations across Australia to call on the NDIA and government to take urgent action to secure the future of services for people with disability and create a better NDIS.

Following the recent announcement of a totally inadequate annual pricing review by the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA), evidence is mounting of catastrophic market failure in the NDIS.

Providers of quality disability services are already reaching breaking point. Recent surveys conducted by Disability Intermediaries Australia and National Disability Services have found that hundreds of Support Coordinators and around 75 per cent of providers are considering stopping some or all of their disability services because of the price limits that came in on 1 July.

This years annual price review is a real ‘kick in the guts’ for quality, safe, independent and registered Support Coordinators. Support Coordination Practices have already commenced closing across the country and more will follow. 

The NDIA’s unrealistic approach to pricing undermines the ability of registered providers to deliver quality, sustainable disability services and is undermining NDIS reform and is likely to negatively impact tens of thousands of NDIS Participants and disability workers. Withdrawal of services will most affect participants with the greatest need — those with complex, high-intensity or behavioural support needs and those in regional and remote Australia.

Level 2 and Level 3 Support Coordination where almost all NDIS Participants are funded for Support Coordination at have had their prices frozen for half a decade. That’s five years of consecutive cuts in real terms.

We need the Government to do a better job of managing the NDIS and act urgently to deliver fair, transparent and sustainable pricing. 

YOUR VOICE MATTERS

Please join us in our call to have the NDIA adequitely price Support Coordination Services. Use the panel below to send an email to the Minister of the NDIS, Shadow Minister for the NDIS and the NDIA. The template below should be updated to reflect your personal situation.

OUR KEY CONCERNS

Support coordinators are passionate advocates for their clients. The market mechanism has enabled participants to select coordinators that best represent them. Testimonials from the independent review, grassroots groups, and many participants highlight that support coordinators often prevent adverse outcomes.

We’re calling for immediate steps to address the funding crisis for disability services.

Our key concerns are:

    • The review did not increase prices for Level Two and Three support coordination for the fifth consecutive year. The perverse outcome of this is a race to the bottom where there is almost a requirement for the Support Coordination to be subsidised by other NDIS functions.

      This is putting imminence and untenable pressure on independent, quality, safe and registered Support Coordinators.

      The Disability Royal Commission called for Support Coordination services to be independent of all other non-intermediary services in order to adequately manage conflict of interest.

    • The changed definition of high intensity supports, which prevents providers  claiming high-intensity payments for behaviour support.
    • The Annual Pricing Review included no support for registered providers and removed both the one per cent temporary loading and the 1.5 per cent temporary transformation payment for some providers.
    • The NDIS price increase of 3.19 per cent for Support Coordination Level 1, which almost no participants are funded for, fails to cover the much-needed uplift in worker wages announced by the Fair Work Commission, let alone recognise the increased cost of day-to-day expenses, such as insurance, utilities, and rents.

    SOCIAL MEDIA

    DIA will be sharing social media posts, tiles, images and facts about the crisis in the Support Coordination sector. We encourage you to share our posts and leave a comment on the issues that concern you most.

    Don’t forget to use the campaign hashtag #4abetterNDIS and tag your local federal MP and the NDIA.

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