IAC Members connected with the community to find out about issues that affect them.

This includes issues that affect participants.

Participants are people with disability who take part in the NDIS.

IAC Members shared reports about these issues with people from the NDIA.

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

IAC Members said there are issues with the NDIA’s phone calls to participants.

The NDIA does not tell participants that it is going to call them.

This means participants might:

• miss the call
• not have a support person with them.

The NDIA will often do a plan reassessment after these calls.

A plan reassessment is when the NDIA checks if the supports in an NDIS plan still work well for a participant.

An NDIS plan has information about:

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

Participants feel they do not have enough time to get evidence for their plan reassessment.

Evidence is proof that something is true.

This means some participants get much less funding.

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

But the NDIA does not tell them why.

IAC Members said this makes participants:

• feel confused
• lose trust in the NDIA.

IAC Members shared some things that worry participants who self-manage their NDIS plans.

Participants who self-manage their NDIS plans pay for their supports through the my NDIS portal and app.

These participants have to give more evidence when they ask the NDIA to pay for a support.

They are also confused about the rules for hiring their own support workers.

Some participants who self-manage their NDIS plans do not know if they need to have service agreements.

A service agreement is a written plan between a participant and their support worker.

It explains:

• what supports they will use
• how their support worker will give them those supports
• how much the supports cost.

They also do not know if their support workers need to do the Worker Screening Check.

A Worker Screening Check makes sure workers are safe to support people with disability.

Self-managed participants are also getting shorter funding periods.

Funding periods tell a participant:

• how long their funding needs to last
• when they can start using more funding.

This makes it harder for participants to choose how they use their funding.

It also makes them worry about running out of funding.

IAC Members said some participants are getting less funding in their NDIS plans.

Most of the time it is less funding for support to take part in the community.

Participants are worried this is happening because laws about the NDIS will change soon.

But these laws have not changed yet.

Participants are worried they will not be able to afford their supports because of this.

Some participants might get less support if their funding changes.

This means some participants might:

• work less
• feel more alone
• not be able to live by themselves.

Some participants are worried they might need to go back to living in group homes.

Group homes are places where people with disability:

• live together
• get support.

IAC Members share some issues with funding for assistive technology.

Assistive technology is equipment or a device that can help people do things more easily.

For example, a wheelchair or a hearing aid.

IAC Members heard about issues from blind and vision-impaired participants.

These participants shared they cannot get funding for technology that anyone can use.

They can only get funding for assistive technology made for people with disability.

This assistive technology:

• costs more
• is harder to use.

Participants often have to wait a long time to get this technology.

IAC Members said that some support coordinators find it hard to make money.

Support coordinators help participants plan and use their supports.

This mostly affects support coordinators far away from cities and towns.

Support coordinators said this is because:

• participants are getting less funding for support coordinators
• the NDIS will not let them put their prices up.

Participants are worried about losing good support coordinators in these areas.

IAC Members shared what providers have told them.

Providers support people with disability by delivering a service.

Providers have asked the NDIA to give them more information.

They want to know how to manage claims from participants.

When you make a claim, you ask the NDIS to pay for a support.

The NDIA have also changed their advice about what supports should cost.

Providers want more information about these changes.