Concern millions of Australians with disability not on the NDIS have been 'forgotten'
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Loading... - Noah Taylor
- 18 May 2022
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Lisa Giles is "angry as hell" after being rejected twice for the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS).
Ms Giles stopped working as a property manager in 2005 due to the impact of multiple conditions including severe cervical spinal stenosis, which causes neck pain.
She uses a walking stick, rarely leaving her home due to debilitating fatigue, and said "bad days" leave her with "tremendous exhaustion".
"I have about 2-3 hours a day that I can try and do something," Ms Giles said.
"I'm often in a lot of pain by night."
While Ms Giles, who lives an hour's drive west of Sydney in the Blue Mountains, has been on the Disability Support Pension (DSP) since 2006, she is "desperate" for more help.
Ms Giles said the DSP is not enough to cover all expenses and the cost of her multiple medications.
"I'm self-funding medicinal cannabis every 15 days. I am losing about 100 bucks every week on that alone," she said.
"I can't keep it up anymore."
Ms Giles said she is desperate for treatment such as remedial massage and hydrotherapy, but Medicare provided limited assistance.
"I need regular physio, not five visits a year … that's like a band-aid on a raging wound."
Ms Giles said she believes the NDIS eligibility system is not fair and equitable.
"We should not say there's the worthy disabled and the unworthy disabled," she said.
'No one's talking about the others'
The NDIS has come a long way since its inception about a decade ago.
Trials kicked off in parts of the country in 2013, before the transition to full rollout began in 2016.
The government declared the scheme "available to all eligible Australians, no matter where they live" in July 2020.
Today, while an estimated 4.4 million Australians live with disability, just over 518,000 — or about 12 per cent — are on the NDIS, according to the latest quarterly report.
Australians aged 65 and over are not eligible for the scheme, and disability advocates say people living with lesser-known or invisible disabilities can have a hard time providing evidence they fit the criteria.
They also say the application process is so complex and onerous that it can dissuade people from applying in the first place. Read More...
