Reference Group members connected with the community to find out about issues that affect them.

This includes issues that affect participants.

Members shared reports about these issues with the NDIA.

People from the NDIA also shared their response to some of these issues.

Reference Group members said people are annoyed about how they have to use NDIS plans.

An NDIS plan has information about:

• a participant and their goals
• what supports a participant needs
• what the NDIS will pay for.

They are annoyed that participants can’t use their NDIS plan in different ways.

Members said participants find it hard to use mainstream services.

Mainstream services are services that everyone in the community can use.

For example:

• schools
• hospitals
• public transport.

Participants have also said some plan managers suggest supports:

bullet that cost too much money

bullet only people with disability can use.end of list

This has made some participants feel like they:

bullet can’t take part in mainstream supports

bullet don’t belong in their community.end of list

The NDIA said the Australian Government is looking into the NDIS supports lists.

Reference Group members said there isn’t enough information about the new support needs assessment.

Support needs assessments help the NDIA work out:

• how a person’s disability affects their life
• what supports a person needs.

Members said they understand that support needs assessments will happen over time.

But members want the NDIA to share more information in places very far away from larger cities and towns.

Members also said more information about these assessments need to be in languages other than English.

This is because not all interpreter services know enough about the NDIS to understand support needs assessments.

An interpreter is someone who:

• uses your language
• helps you understand what someone is saying.

Reference Group members asked the NDIA to explain some things NDIS planners are doing.

An NDIS planner is someone who:

• makes new NDIS plans
• changes NDIS plans.

Some NDIS planners are not using proof to make decisions about supports in NDIS plans.

The NDIA said this is because of the new support needs assessment.

The support needs assessment means that participants might not need to show proof for a support.

The NDIA said the support needs assessment makes it easier to make decisions about funding.

Funding is money from a participant’s NDIS plan that pays for the supports they need.

Reference Group members are worried about the support transgender people get.

Transgender is when a person’s gender is different from the one they were given when they were born.

They’re worried because some countries no longer support young transgender people with disability.

The NDIA told members it hasn’t changed the way it supports LGBTQIA+ communities.

The letters LGBTIQA stand for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, queer or questioning and asexual.

The ‘+’ is for people who are part of the LGBTIQA+ community but don’t talk about themselves using a word from this list.

Reference Group members said some people find it hard to use the NDIS portal.

People are finding it hard to log into the NDIS portal through MyGov.

This is because there is a lot of security they have to go through to log on through MyGov.

The NDIA said security is important.

But making sure logging on is easy for everyone is important too.