PWDA made a submission to the Joint Standing Committee’s Inquiry into the Independent Assessments.
PWDA holds significant concerns about the Federal Government’s planned changes to how people with disability will access the NDIS and how they will receive support.
Independent assessments will not resolve the current problems with the NDIS. Alongside the new process for determining individual plans and budgets, independent assessments may actually compound existing problems or even create new unintended ones.
While we all want greater consistency, we are very concerned this increasingly automated process will not adequately consider individual need and circumstance. Instead independent assessments will fundamentally alter the individualised and personalised nature of the NDIS.
Independent assessments have not been rigorously tested or undergone an independent evaluation. Consultation has been rushed and the questions and concerns of people with disability, their families and the organisations that support and represent them have not been addressed.