NDIS Survey and Radiothon Thank you

Speaker 1 0:00

Hi everybody. My name is Auntie Jane, and I'd like to begin by paying my respects to the wondery people and to the stolen generation people of this land where we are meeting upon today, for its elders and past and presents, and even for the self accuracy people who have passed away and who are still here today on Aboriginal land. Thank you for money, Jane,

Speaker 2 0:25

we recognize all self advocates who have worked tirelessly over the years for the rights equality and human rights for all.

Speaker 3 0:35

Hello and welcome to another raising our voices show on three CR, 8:55am, three CR, digital Radio and three cr.org.au we are a self advocacy radio show run by people with a disability, about people with a disability, nothing about us without us.

Chris 1:17

Today, we are talking about the NDS and the changes that has happened, good and bad. We have a special guest on Nia. She's going to talk to us about it, and also we would like to do a big thank you to everyone who has donated their money to the radio a THON, because if, if it wasn't for you guys, we wouldn't be on air. Let's see who is in today. Well, I'm here, and I'm Chris, and I'm from, have a say Bendigo. Hi.

Unknown Speaker 2:13

I'm Shona and I'm from, have a say Bendigo too.

Speaker 2 2:16

Hi. I'm James. I'm from Rainbow rights and efficacy, and also from a minor committee.

Speaker 4 2:24

I'm Sky, and I used to be part of New Wave Gippsland. New Wave Gippsland. Thank you. But yeah, just doing this now the raising of what's

Amanda 2:38

this? My name is Amanda, and I belong to at least four groups and raising our voices, plus I'm involved in two sub groups.

Speaker 5 2:51

Hi there. My name is Nia. I run the NDIS self advocacy Working Group, which is a group made up of about 13 different self advocacy organizations, and we talk about NDIS issues and how it affects self advocacy

Speaker 2 3:10

today, we are talking to Nia, who is giving us information On the NDIS changes. Thanks for being here today. Nia, you're welcome. Can you please tell us some of the changes for the NDIS,

Speaker 5 3:33

sure, there are two pretty big things that are happening at the moment. One is talking about the supports rules, and the other is talking about the funding schedules. I can talk about those in a bit more detail. Yes, please. Okay, sure, so talking about the supports rules. The Department of Social Services is asking the public what they think about the NDIS supports rules. They're asking the participants who are on the NDIS, as well as carers and people who work with participants that supports Rules are rules that say what types of supports and services an NDIS participant can spend their funds on, so like physio and woodwork and things in October last year, transitional rules were made, were put in place. These are rules that are like in between, like the old rules prior to, like October last year and the new rules haven't been. Put finally into place. Yes, the Department of Social Services is getting feedback from the community to find out if the transitional rules are working or not, and what everyone thinks about it. The transitional rules are the rules the NDA think should be included, but they're they're giving people to have a chance to give their feedback before the list is final. So that's why it's it's called transitional. It's kind of an in between set of rules more than 7000 people have told the Department of Social Services how they think the NDIA support lists should work. Now, these transitional rules, the ones that are in place now, need to be updated to include all the feedback and things that people have have talked about so and the Department of Social Services have have put a survey on their website that anyone can go to to let them know what They think of the transitional support rules. They want people from the disability community to talk about their experience of working with the support list, how they understand them, how they can use them and things, and the feedback you give them will help make the changes to the NDA support rules before they are finally agreed to with the state and territories governments, So that survey is on the government website. Engage.dss.gov.au.

Speaker 4 7:02

Right. So when does that close? Near

Speaker 5 7:05

survey finishes on the 27th of July. So you've got a few more weeks. Oh, not much time. At the end of the survey, you can upload a submission if you have more that you want to say, more than the questions ask you. And a submission is can be a written document or an audio or video file, but you need to upload it on this system.

Speaker 4 7:35

Gee, yeah, that's really clear. Nia, thank you for sharing that, yeah, good rhyme.

Amanda 7:44

Still lost in what you just said, because it's so much to take it at once. Yeah,

Speaker 5 7:50

yeah, okay. Well, what it boils down to is, at the moment from October last year, the NDIS put in place a set of rules saying what you can use as supports and what you can't. So those are temporary, yep, until they work out the final set of rules. They're asking for feedback from people who use the NDIS, who are on the NDIS or or work with the NDIS in in any way, to give them feedback about how people can use the support list, whether it's working or not,

Speaker 4 8:42

yeah, and that the survey is on the Engage website, you said, yeah,

Speaker 5 8:48

the deposit, sorry, The Department of Social Services website, engage.dss.gov.au. The survey finishes on the 27th of July, right?

Amanda 9:05

Random never, never sent me that checklist in the mail.

Speaker 5 9:12

No, I think it's more. It's on their website, on the NDIS website. I'm thinking maybe you have to look for it, which is not a very inclusive way to get across no no information. Do you work with the Support Coordinator? Yep, yep, yep. They should have made you aware of it, I think, but that that's one of the problems, is communication and getting this information out to people in a way that they can understand or work with it.

Amanda 9:59

Yeah. When I didn't even know there was a survey out. So no, no, that it's probably news to men. It's probably Yeah, because it's not said to me big print.

Speaker 5 10:12

No, no, you it's really silly, because a you have to be looking for it or no, it's changing. And so you look for it and B you have to know where to look for it, which can be really hard. A good place to go is the NDIS website usually tells you what they're talking to the community about at the moment, there's the survey and consultations about the support lists.

Amanda 10:53

They thought about blind people, and what about people who cannot read audio and yep, can only read pictures. There's a lot more kind of disabilities out there in the community, and they're not adapting to each one. You can have that they can make their feedback give you the right information they they don't have a clue what's going on.

Speaker 5 11:26

Yeah, yeah. I'm part of a working group to do with the NDAs. And almost every meeting I say you have to present this information in a way that everyone can understand. You have people with complex communication needs, visually impaired, hearing impaired, intellectually disabled. You people who don't speak English as a first language, yep. I mean, they just have to think of everything. No, I wouldn't like to do their job.

Amanda 12:09

Oh, no way.

Speaker 4 12:13

So near. Would you better tell us about the funding schedules then sure

Speaker 5 12:18

from the 19th of May this year, 2025 the NDIS have started using new funding periods with new and reassessed plans. These changes are to help people manage their money better. The changes will happen slowly, so they're not going to start them all at once. The aim is to make it easier for everyone to use their budgets. The changes are meant to support everyone in a simple way. In October last year, changes were made to the NDIS act. These changes brought in 12 months funding periods for new and checked plans. This means people have limited time to use their money so so instead of a couple of years, you you've just got to use all of your money in your plan in 12 months. The NDIS is working on changes to allow both longer and shorter funding periods. This means people might have more or less time to use their money depending on their needs, right? The NDIS makes rules for how long people can spend their money. They also decide how much money people can use in that time. This helps people plan their support. The NDIS looks at different things to decide the funding period. They want to make sure people get the right help for the right amount of time. So they look at things like, what you would like, any risks with spending more than you have in that time period, and whether there are any risks of harm, fraud or financial exploitation, funding is given every three months to help people use the money in their plan, or To help people look after and use their money better for the length of their whole plan that this means you can plan how to use your money over time. It helps you spend your money more evenly. Sometimes you might need more money at the start. It when you need to buy large or expensive equipment. This could be for things like special equipment or changes to your home. So more money can be given at the start of your plan if you need it. Funding period is when you can use part of your money. It doesn't change how much money you get in total. It's when you can use a portion of that money, or a bit of it. You can only use the money available in the current funding period if you spend more than you have, it won't be paid. And if you don't use all of your money in one period, it moves on to the next. But any money left at the end of your plan won't go to a new plan. So you have to kind of make sure you're using it constantly through your plan, the NDIS have been talking to different groups about funding periods. These groups include the independent advisory council and some reference groups. They also talk to the disability representative and carer organizations. The NDA started these talks in March 2024, March last year, they talked to two groups to help make the rules. The first group is the self management advisory group, and the second group is the participant safeguarding co Design Group. The NDIS will help people and service providers understand the changes they want to make sure everyone knows when changes will happen. They will also explain what people need to do, and you can find answers to common questions about NDIS funding on their website, which is www.ndis.gov

Speaker 4 17:22

dot au, goodness,

Speaker 5 17:27

and I'm just concerned about the communication with majority of participants, unless you are on a group or involved in something that keeps you informed with what's happening. There's not been a lot of of communication with participants. No, I don't think what?

Speaker 4 18:00

Yeah, unless you're in a group or something, or you can find out somehow, yeah, how would you how would you know about these things

Speaker 5 18:07

exactly you don't know what you don't know, and you don't know where to look. Yeah, I think they have a lot to do with with their communication. A lot, yeah, improvements could be

Speaker 4 18:22

made. Yeah. So thanks for that, Nia. We will put links to the survey, to the Department of Social Services survey on our Facebook page, right? It's good. We'll also put the NDIS a link to the NDIS website on the Facebook page so people can go and have a look. And that's the raising our voices Facebook page. So just in Facebook type raising our voices, and it should come up.

Unknown Speaker 19:01

Neha, yes,

Amanda 19:06

what you just said? You said going to be in an easy read, things so people with disabilities, with disabilities get around in their head.

Speaker 4 19:19

But I do think that the NDIS could improve communications, because how would they know about these changes until it comes up in the planning meeting? In your next planning meeting, like, Why can't the NDIS send out a message to all participants? Well, that's not very hard, is it? I don't know. Yeah,

Amanda 19:42

and speaking of that stuff, the the NDI has sent me great, big long letter, big print. I had to have my support worker look through it. She, she, she roughly knows about this. Changes, because I showed you this book today.

Speaker 3 20:04

Yeah, okay, why has the NDIS changed?

Speaker 5 20:12

They're they're making the changes to cut the costs a lot, I think,

Speaker 4 20:17

yeah, because it costs a lot of money and they're trying to just make it a little bit more efficient, aren't they?

Speaker 3 20:24

For everybody? Yeah, because there is a problem about that, because disability organizations, a lot of them, like the ones on through the one arm, through, where I get my one on ones, they're really wanting to know two weeks before if you can't attend the program and you don't know, because how could you like, say, even if you're sick on that day and you have to cancel your support, yeah, you'll still get charged. That's stupid.

Speaker 4 21:12

It is. Yeah, two weeks. That's two weeks. It's just ridiculous. I know

Chris 21:16

you don't know if you're going to be sick or

Speaker 4 21:18

not, but when the NDIS first started 12 years ago, the first people who designed it had a certain idea of it, and it's it's changed a lot since then, hasn't it? Yeah,

Amanda 21:37

Rod thought that meant to be waiting at the bad people are taking our money, yeah, and not using a puppy. Instead, they're cutting down people with disabilities money and service. That wrong. They should be behind the bad people down and putting them in

Speaker 5 21:58

That's exactly right. The disabled community should not suffer because of the bad actions of some of the people that work with them. But that's the way it's looking. Yeah, that things are cut for our choice. It made less because of some bad apples in the cart kind of thing. Yeah,

Speaker 4 22:26

well, that's the idea. Wasn't it originally, because the states and territories were taking care of people with disabilities, and it was such a, you know, such a kind of patchwork around the country. Yeah. So the NDIS has done a lot of good things, but there are changes. Yeah, that need to happen. They

Speaker 5 22:53

governments are introducing foundational supports.

Speaker 4 22:59

Oh, not that again. That's really interesting.

Speaker 5 23:03

Yeah, yeah, yeah, but they were supposed to be in place, I think from the first of July,

Speaker 4 23:12

you're right, man, yeah, yeah, that they're supposed to come in by the first of July, but they've decided to push it back. I

Speaker 5 23:20

think, yeah, there's still not a lot of information about them, and agreement about between the governments who is going to pay for what. We don't even know what they are so

Speaker 4 23:33

well, you know, we just had the election, not, not that long ago. So it takes some time for every everybody to get into the new roles and things. So, yeah, I think that's that is understandable that they pushed a bath. Yeah, for that reason, now we are going to do some shout outs to donators who have donated money to keep us on the air from last month. We got to celebrate. Everybody. Okay, so we've got Mr. James Tekin, and James is dead in $40 everybody. So well done. James.

Speaker 6 24:19

Good eye. James, thanks. Go James.

Speaker 4 24:26

And next, we've got Brenda, thank you. And she's donated $67.28 yay. And next we've got Pauline Williams, yes, thanks, Pauline, yay.

Speaker 4 24:54

And we have Dotty has donated $20 and. 70 cents and Melita joy and the Fisher family. Thank you Fisher family. Thank you Fisher family. Anonymous. There's lots of people called Anonymous because everyone's Anonymous. Anonymous has donated $25.88 Yes, and we've got Larissa MacFarlane, oh, we know. I know Larissa, and Larissa has donated $38.33 Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 25:44

Larissa, and then we've got Amanda million. Go Amanda, she's donated $110 we've got James take it away. Who is it?

Unknown Speaker 26:03

We have Fiona, who has donated $258 Yay. Thank you very much.

Amanda 26:21

Total now,

Speaker 4 26:23

well, so what's our total? Everybody? If we haven't read your name out, stay tuned. We will read more later.

Speaker 3 26:38

We'll be right back after a couple of announcements and a song called Money, Money Money by Abba, the

Speaker 2 26:50

song you just heard was money, money, money by Abba. This song we chose because NDIS is about money. All just raised some money. We all just raised money.

Amanda 27:11

It kept freezing from the big talking box that we can hear well around the country, but a Victorian light.

Speaker 4 27:24

You're listening to raising our voices on three CR, 8:55am, three CR, digital and streaming at three cr.org.au, raising our voices. Is a radio show run by people with disability. For people with disability, nothing about us, without us.

Speaker 2 27:52

Today, we have talked about the NDIS changes, and we are going to

Cam 28:03

shout out to our listeners who donated to the radio phone speaking about the radiothon, Here are some more donations. Sky, $50 Kylie Fisher, yeah, Penny $20.70 yay. Karina, $20 pillar akalera, $50 $50 yay.

Unknown Speaker 28:50

Gab, read,

Unknown Speaker 28:53

thank you. Gab.

Speaker 2 28:56

Eddie Marion, yeah. Fiona, York, $25 yay. Emily Hayes, our total is, overall is $1,344.30 and $44.30

Unknown Speaker 29:27

amazing. We did really

Speaker 4 29:33

well. Three CL, want us to do more.

Speaker 2 29:40

Thank you everyone. It's it is the most we have raised.

Unknown Speaker 29:46

Wow. We did really

Chris 29:49

well, pretty good. I'm impressed. Red.

Amanda 29:53

Can I say foundation member of raising our voices. Fan. Foundation in living memory. I think this is the highest total, just in under 8/3. 38 years is coming up on the 17th of August of this year.

Speaker 2 30:15

Yeah, yeah. Who would like to talk about that changes to the NDIS.

Chris 30:27

I'd like to talk about my funding, because my funding is being cut back and I need to be tested for my autism, plus I'm not too sure if I've been charged for my cancer license, and also, what happens with my money, with the funding, if I do get cancer license, maybe Nia can about help me with that one.

Speaker 5 30:56

I know you'll have a service agreement with anybody who you work with, and in that agreement, it tells you how much notice you need to give them. But I think that, in itself, is difficult, because you don't plan to be sick unless you're not sick, so that will happen without notice, it doesn't work both ways,

Chris 31:25

because with my support, I've actually had like two cancelations with my workers, yeah, and I know I've got a lot of funding. Will that funding be I will still be used before I need to get new funding.

Speaker 4 31:45

Yeah, yeah. I think that kind of thing is really tricky in organizations, because, of course, they want to make money. They need to make money. But it's also challenging for the participant, because you don't know, as you said, Nia, like you don't know if you're going to be sick. Yeah, yeah. So I'd like to talk about how the planning meeting it's really important to have an advocate with you who can help you talk to the planner on your behalf. Because if say, if you're having a bit of an off day or something, and, you know, things get rolled around in your head, you know, sometimes I can't say what I need to say in the way that the planner understands. So it's really good to have someone there, like a support worker that you trust, or someone you know who really knows you and can speak on your behalf to the planner, because and because the language is actually really difficult sometimes, and I think that's really important. James, you said that two hours isn't enough.

Speaker 2 33:01

No two hours. Two hours is not enough for me, for for support, actually, yeah,

Unknown Speaker 33:11

gonna talk a bit bit more. Say something more about that.

Speaker 2 33:14

I get two hours in the morning and two hours in the afternoon. I think

Amanda 33:22

rent, rent. So James, that's four hours per day.

Unknown Speaker 33:27

There's four hours per day. Yes,

Unknown Speaker 33:29

yeah. So it's not very much, is it?

Unknown Speaker 33:33

There's not very much. No, no, that's not good.

Speaker 2 33:36

Yeah. Well, it is hard for to get a two hour shift because some workers have been canceled. And I had, I also had a phone call about a cancelation today because I was supposed to have a ot Come, come and see me, and they rang me and they said, where that your appointment has been canceled,

Speaker 4 34:06

yeah? And they did it on the day.

Unknown Speaker 34:10

They did that on the day. Yes,

Speaker 4 34:12

goodness gracious, yeah. And as you said, and yeah, if you canceled them, they'd take you pay, wouldn't they?

Unknown Speaker 34:22

That's not fair.

Speaker 2 34:24

It's not fair on the participant who has rang to confirm the appointments, and then they ring to to counter their appointment.

Chris 34:40

Yeah, they wouldn't like it if you rang them up and canceled

Shona 34:49

Exactly. Well, I used to have a physio through the NDIS, but, no, I don't anymore, because of the NDIS, they cut my funding and. It. And I they think I they thought I did not need a physio, but I do. I've had supports canceled about a few times as well, and another problem and my physio use the physio I had. He works through the same organization as my ot does. Oh, and I do have an OT, but the NDIS thinks brain damages are not required brain injuries, but they actually are, and I have it, I have a brain I have brain damage.

Speaker 4 35:49

Yeah, I've got brain damage too. And it is acquired brain injury.

Unknown Speaker 35:54

It is, agree,

Shona 35:56

yeah, yeah, the NDIS think brain damages are different to an inquired brain injury? They're not. They're the same. It is a type of inquired brain injury. Yeah, it is.

Amanda 36:11

But is it through an accident or the way you come into this world or something else?

Shona 36:18

No, I ended up with an inquire I ended up with brain damage by having multiple seizures when I was only a child, and that's what caused me to have an intellectual disability. Right? Years after, I was diagnosed with epilepsy and diagnosed with an inquired brain injury. I was diagnosed with an intellectual disability. I was not born with a disability. I was just born like my sisters. They were. They don't have disabilities a bit, and they have always been like that. But I wasn't even born with a disability. I didn't have it until I was about

Unknown Speaker 37:03

five. It can happen to anyone.

Unknown Speaker 37:06

Yeah, me too,

Unknown Speaker 37:09

yeah. I was just like,

Speaker 4 37:11

yeah. I was fine until I was five, and then I had my stroke, so I'm the same.

Shona 37:16

Is that how you ended up blind sky? Yeah, yeah.

Chris 37:23

Because you can never say that you'll never get disability. That's right.

Shona 37:27

Yes, it is right. And you should never say you'll never get asthma or epilepsy. And I was actually diagnosed with asthma in 2022 Whoa, gee, but I haven't had an asthma attack yet. The reason why i i Oh, for a while I had the feeling I had asthma because I was because sometimes, every now and again, I have to take a huge, deep breath and Alright, and then when I'm breathing, I sometimes feel like I'm not breathing properly. Yeah, it feels too small. The breathing does, yep. So I went to the doctors, and my doctor checked my lungs and said I did have asthma. I have seasonal asthma.

Speaker 4 38:17

So Nia, I was just thinking that, you know that the fact that the NDIS has cut physio quite a lot. It's been in the news lately. I think that it's, I'm not, probably putting this right, but it's, you know, NDIS doesn't see that physio. They think that physio is like a health thing, but physio for people with disability actually helps get better.

Speaker 5 38:53

So it might not help you, like become a long distance runner or something, but it helps you function. It helps you move and yep, and use your body in a way, in the best way you can. And it helps you overcome, like if you have pain from something, it helps you develop different ways of moving so so you don't hurt yourself. Yeah, in the future, yeah, it's very important part of treatment, I think,

Speaker 6 39:34

yeah, persona, um,

Shona 39:37

yeah, of course. I have a I can't handle with what my right foot does. Sometimes it turns itself over, then, then I fall over eventually, and sometimes when that happens, I sprain my ankle a lot, and I never know when that's going to happen. I never know. When I'm gonna fall over, because I just and my mom actually calls being clumsy, and I hate being clumsy.

Amanda 40:15

You don't want that dog tag around your neck.

Speaker 4 40:22

What can people do if they are not happy with the NDIS plan?

Speaker 5 40:28

If you have a support team like family or friends, you can go to them and ask them to help you make a case. I think it's called the Art Administrative Review Tribunal at the NDIS, and you can take a case to them and sort out what you're not happy with. The first person probably would be a support coordinator, if you have one, you can contact them.

Speaker 2 41:04

Thank you to our special guests, Nia, for joining us today and sharing information about the NDIS with us. Thanks, Nia, you're

Unknown Speaker 41:16

welcome. Thanks, Nia.

Unknown Speaker 41:19

Yeah, we love having here on the show. It

Unknown Speaker 41:23

was a pleasure to be here.

Amanda 41:26

And name, are you able to come back, baby? You know, future show down the track, because I'm sure more changes in the

Speaker 5 41:39

works. Yeah. Yeah, these reforms are going on for the next couple of years. I think, Whoa. I'm sure there'll be more updates, things to talk about in the future.

Amanda 41:54

Thank you very much for help and support today, if

Speaker 2 41:59

you have only just tuned in, we are raising our voices on the three CR, 8:55am, today, NIA came and talked about changes to the NDIS, and we did a shout out to thank the people who gave money to raising our voices on three CR.

Amanda 42:31

Thank you for listening to raising our voices on three CR. 855, on only band. Raising our voices is a radio show run by people with disabilities. Run for people's disabilities. Join us for next month. So where will we celebrating the 38 years we've been on three CR, and there's going to be so Duff comes from the archives and maybe different shows. Just to let you know, guys, I have the 38 year old tape, and it is the first original show. Yeehaw. Thank you for listening to raising our voices day. Tuned for the next raising our voices program and stay tuned on three

3CR ID 43:29

Cree Ha, you've been listening to a three CR podcast produced in the studios of independent community radio station three CR in Melbourne, Australia. For more information, go to all the w's. Dot three cr.org.au,

Transcribed by https://otter.ai