Your disability supports just became faster and fairer!

In the latest update by the Minister, the Hon. Bill Shorten MP, the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) revealed that participants are now receiving faster and fairer access to the funding they need for their supports.

Achieved by establishing an alternate dispute resolution panel, the resulting reduction in cases with the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT), has eased the bottleneck of NDIS participants stuck with the courts over the issue of the level of supports they receive.

This move not only will help the AAT smash through the pending cases but also pave way for a more streamlined dispute resolution process for the future. Moreover, in a move to make the NDIS even fairer, the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) has also taken measures to establish an Independent External Review (IER) trial.

Being monitored by an Oversight Committee comprising of a range of experienced disability and advocacy personnel, the IER, which in itself comprising of disability management experts will provide independent recommendations to the NDIA.

Furthermore, these developments while offering more control to the NDIS participants over the care they need, will also provide them with the confidence that they won’t have to compromise on their quality of life while waiting for the right funding package.

Although we are yet to see the long term results of these changes, we do believe that the Hon. Minister Bill Shorten’s vision of creating a faster, fairer and a more transparent system for the NDIS to function in in a step in the right direction.