PWDA has significant concerns about several aspects of recent service delivery models, especially those that relate to the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) and Agency (NDIA) and to Centrelink in the Human Services portfolio.
As part of our work with DPO Australia, we recently conducted a survey of nearly 900 people with disability for the Civil Society Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Shadow Report. Our survey found most of us had difficulty accessing government services and agencies (67%). Many survey respondents had experienced discrimination and disrespect from government agencies including Centrelink and the NDIA.
People with disability also told us that language used by government negatively impacts people with disability. The language used reperpetuate the stigma that people with disability are a “burden”, and are not entitled to the benefits they receive. Having to constantly prove one’s disability also strongly contributed to the overall inaccessibility of human services.
Our overarching concerns include:
- direct impact on our right to access to essential supports
- quality of service delivery, particularly the impact on accessibility and inclusive delivery for people with disability
- fairness of programs
- development of capacity of staff.
Considering the above, this submission will only focus on: Centrelink’s Robodebt compliance and outsourced debt collection program, and; the broader outsourcing of functions in the Human Services portfolio and at the NDIA.
Read the submission:
Submission on the impact of changes to service delivery models – Word version
Submission on the impact of changes to service delivery models – PDF version