Something wrong with the NDIS?

"The lawn mower man charges me $99," J... told me.

"And how long does it take him to do the job?" I asked. 

J... thought about it for a moment and then said, "Well, it isn't even half an hour."

"Does he do anything else?"

"Not really. I mean he puts the cuttings in the bin but that's all."

J... is on one of the NDIS packages for people with a disability. She needs help with the lawn mowing and her housework. Someone now takes her shopping although she still holds a licence. I am not sure she should be driving but her doctor has obviously had to decide between isolation and safety. I just hope she does not harm anyone else.

She phones me about her problems and the garden came up. The garden is beyond her capabilities. It has always been beyond her capabilities but she has at least tried to keep the weeds at bay and someone has come in to mow the lawn. That person was appointed by someone from the NDIS. J...is paying him at least twice what she should be, possibly even more. He may not be getting that much of course. He is probably contracted to someone else who will be getting at least half. 

If J... had found someone for herself she would not be paying that much. At the old house I was paying someone $20 for around fifteen to twenty minutes of mowing, edging and putting the cuttings into the compost bin at the rear of the yard. If I had not insisted on paying him more I would still have been paying him the $15 he had been paid for the ten years prior to that. He was going out of his way to do the work for me. Just before I left he retired and the man who took over the round went on for the last six months for the same price. I made sure both of them had plenty of cold water to take with them in summer and they would both come in for a glass or two of cordial as well if it was very hot. 

Yes, the Senior Cat and I knew we were lucky but we also knew that to pay what J...is paying would be to pay too much. Yes, her "lawn" is larger but it is not four times that size and it does not take four times as long.

This is one of the big problems with the NDIS. The recipients of packages are being overcharged. 

One of the other recipients I know is attending speech pathology. The cost of a session should be around $160 for 50mins. She gets charged $199 for just over half that. The help she gets there is still allowing her to eat reasonably normally. It is not "having fun" or "playing games". 

And then there is the boy I know who is sitting uncomfortably in a wheelchair which is too small for him. It has broken twice and been soldered together again by a neighbour so that the boy can continue going to school. NDIS is supposed to providing assistance to get a bigger chair but "the funding isn't there". Why? The family is actually getting less than what he would be well entitled to. It is only because the provision of a properly fitting wheelchair is a specialist matter that his parents have not tried to scrape all the money together themselves. As it is they are offering to pay half - only to be told that there are other reasons for the delays as well as the funding issues.

I would really, really like to be able to go through all the funding packages and remove some of the things that the "squeaky wheel" parents have managed to get and that outspoken people with disabilities have managed to get. There are too many people out there not getting the help they need and far too many others getting funding they do not need. It may be nice to have but some are getting help they do not actually need in order to live in the community without any more or less disadvantage than anyone else. Others are still not getting the help they need to live with dignity.