Page 1140 - Week 04 - Tuesday, 10 April 2018
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As members may be aware, once a person with disability is deemed eligible for an NDIS plan, their plan may include funding for transport supports. Therefore, if a person with a disability was previously receiving a mobility allowance via Centrelink, once they have transitioned to the NDIS, Centrelink is notified and their mobility allowance ceases.
Australian public trustees are appointed as financial administrators or attorneys for a large number of people with disability, including many who are eligible to receive assistance under the NDIS. Many people supported by the ACT Public Trustee and Guardian have received the mobility allowance, which could be used flexibly by the individual, with the support of their financial manager, to meet their individual needs. However, clients who are NDIS participants must use their NDIS transport funds for transport purposes only.
Recommendation 11 of the report stems from the impacts of this issue, because the ACT Public Trustee and Guardian’s office is not designed to allow for transport funding payments to be received and held to be acquitted for transport purposes only. Staff from the Office for Disability have met with the ACT Public Trustee and Guardian to work through the specific matters raised in the report and to discuss what support the Office for Disability could provide the ACT Public Trustee and Guardian to raise these issues at a commonwealth level.
I am pleased to report that the Office for Disability is raising this matter with the commonwealth to seek a practical solution to the issues raised by the ACT Public Trustee and Guardian. I thank the ACT Public Trustee and Guardian’s office for bringing the issue to our attention. This is just one of the issues that the ACT has raised with the commonwealth government and the NDIA at both ministerial and officer level.
As I mentioned previously, the Office for Disability has developed a strong working relationship with the NDIA and continues to advocate on local issues, provide advice and highlight the improvements that must be made. In September last year, in my six-month report to this place on the role of the ACT government under the national disability insurance scheme, I noted that:
Some people with disability have been frustrated by the complexity of the transition to the NDIS and their individual outcomes. I have welcomed their advice and their forbearance.
We continue to hear people’s frustrations and will continue to work with the commonwealth to ensure that the development and implementation of the NDIS is successful, not only as a service system but also on an individual level for participants, their families and carers.
I would like to note in particular the individuals and families who have shared their NDIS stories, including at a number of recent public forums and through the current health, ageing and community services inquiry into the implementation, performance and governance of the national disability insurance scheme in the ACT. This feedback
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