Hireup – Neena Bhandari

Difficulties Australians of CALD backgrounds face in accessing the NDIS

By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, 21.06.2021 (Hireup): Twenty-five percent of Australians with profound or severe disability don’t speak English at home but most of the information provided by the NDIS is in English. So how do people from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds access the needed supports in their plan?

The term ‘CALD participants’ refers to participants of the NDIS who don’t use English as the primary language at home. Historically, Australians from CALD backgrounds have been underrepresented in the disability sector.

According to the National Dashboard in 2020, there were 40,391 people from CALD backgrounds; 9.3 percent of the 442,209 people nationally on NDIS. And further data shows that CALD participants are utilising 66 percent of their plans on average compared to 68 percent for non-CALD participants.

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Why are those on the NDIS charged more?

By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, 27.05.21 (Hireup): When Monique Power approached a local private paediatric physiotherapy practice and told them that her daughter, who was born with a rare and sporadic disability, was a National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) participant, they increased their standard consultation fee by $100. When she queried the price gap, the provider couldn’t give any reasonable justification apart from saying, “We thought that is what we were meant to be charging”.

“Their lack of knowledge, moral compass and sheer ignorance of the nuances of the NDIS is unfortunately not an isolated occurrence”, says Power, Founder of RippleAbility, which helps parents and carers to access and optimise their NDIS Plans.

The National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) provides funding to NDIS participants to purchase a range of reasonable and necessary supports to increase independence, and social and economic participation. This funding is provided through individual participant budgets and the amount NDIA pays for these supports is set in the NDIS Price Guide, which is updated annually on 1^st July.

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