News

7 AUGUST 2024

The Department of Social Services (DSS) and the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) have released their draft lists outlining the supports that will be included and excluded if the NDIS Bill passes later this month. These lists are crucial as they define the scope of NDIS funding and have significant implications for people with disabilities and their advocates.

These lists give shape to the much-discussed section 10 of the legislation, which gives the government the power to limit the type of things that NDIS money can be spent on. This specific consultation addresses the gap created by the removal of APTOS principles from the draft Bill, which were roundly criticised by the disability community.

DANA is extremely concerned about the impact of such limited and stark lists on people with disability, and on advocates who will be supporting them through this massive change. This apparent effort to make things clearer is likely to do just the opposite and replicates some of the worst features that the initial proposal to introduce APTOS would have brought in.

Issues with the draft lists

The lists themselves are dense, lack any page numbers, and are generally quite unwieldy and long. The first part of the document lists supports that they want to give the green light to as approved NDIS supports, and largely reads like an abridged version of the NDIS price guide.

Where the rubber hits the road is from page 12 onwards, where the Government proposes what will not be funded as NDIS supports.

Living costs

They begin by drawing a big list of so-called ‘day-to-day’ living costs, featuring some of the items that have received a disproportionate amount of attention in the press. One of them is a broad exclusion of household goods, an issue we flagged in our original submission to the Bill as far too broad. There is an exemption where ‘costs are incurred solely as a result of their disability support needs,’ but this adds a lot of complexity and uncertainty to a set of lists that the Government is insisting will clarify the situation.

Access to mainstream products

Many people with disability have rightly used NDIS funds to adapt mainstream, much cheaper products for their disability related needs. These lists push people with disability towards disability-specific suppliers, which can be much more costly.

Sexual supports

There is also a prohibition on NDIS funds being used for sex work services, which would override a long-standing Federal Court precedent. DANA joined with other Representative Organisations last month calling for those services to be protected.

Interface with State Governments and future rules

We’re still working through the detail, but there are other concerning elements that control the interface between NDIS supports and State Government systems like health, education and child protection. Advocates have been at the front line of these fights, where different levels of government argue over who is responsible for specific supports for people with disability, who then are left stranded. These strict lists will make this situation worse.

Many advocates have supported people going through the AAT to get the support they need while at school or uni, and there are many fights when supports overlap between Medicare and the NDIS (such as psychology or physical therapy). The government needs to ensure that people with disability aren’t left behind by these changes as foundational supports are developed.

While this is an interim measure while the Federal Government and States develop a more sophisticated set of rules to regulate NDIS supports, these lists will be extremely important. People on the NDIS will only be able to spend their funds on supports that meet these criteria and the NDIA will only be able to fund supports for people’s plans if they’re compatible with the list.

One of the inevitable consequences of broad lists like these is that they will not consider the unique circumstances that arise in specific contexts, and with the existing problems and delays from the NDIA, DANA is very concerned that decisions will be made that hurt people with disability.

DANA had a short briefing about this approach to Section 10 and gave strong feedback against this approach, and raised a number of significant issues with these lists. They were not developed with us or any other advocacy or representative group.