Changes to the NDIS
Department of Social Services
Easy English
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You can get someone to help you
- understand this book
- find more information
Contact information is at the end of this book.
About this book
This book is from the Department of Social Services.
We are part of the Australian public service.
We call ourselves the department.
This book is about the National Disability Insurance Scheme or NDIS.
The NDIS gives services and support to people with permanent disability.
Permanent disability means a disability that will not go away.
The NDIS also gives services and support to people who need early intervention
Early intervention means we work with some people now so they need less support later.
Early intervention can be for
- children
- adults
- people with psychosocial disability.
Psychosocial disability means a mental illness that causes disability.
This book says how we want to change the NDIS
Why do we want to change the NDIS?
We asked someone from outside the department to review the NDIS.
A review is when we check
- what is good about the NDIS
- what is not good about the NDIS
- how we can make the NDIS better.
Our review gave us ideas about how we can
- make the NDIS better for people with disability
- make sure the NDIS has enough money to last a long time.
How will we change the NDIS?
We asked the Australian parliament to make a new law about the NDIS.
The parliament is a group of people that makes laws for Australians.
A law says
- what is allowed
and
- what is not allowed.
Our new law says we can make new rules about the NDIS.
We must tell parliament
- if we asked people with disability to help make the new rules
- what people with disability say about the new rules.
Our new law has 3 parts.
1. How we will change access to the NDIS
Access is when you can be part of something.
Our new law says we will tell you why you are part of the NDIS.
You might be part of the NDIS
- because of your permanent disability
- because you need early intervention
- because of your permanent disability and you need early intervention.
We will give people with permanent disability an impairment notice.
An impairment notice says what disabilities let you be a part of the NDIS.
We will check if people who get early intervention still need it.
We might decide that someone
- still needs early intervention
- does not need early intervention but still needs to be in the NDIS
- does not need early intervention and does not need to be in the NDIS.
We will make new rules for how we test functional capacity.
Functional capacity means what a person with disability
- can do
- needs support to do.
2. What are the new rules for your NDIS budget?
NDIS budget means how much NDIS money you have.
We will make new rules for how we do a needs assessment.
A needs assessment is when we find out what support a person with disability needs.
We will test if someone
- needs support from the NDIS
- needs support from other services
- for example, a doctor
- needs support for something that makes it harder to live with their disability
- for example, an illness.
How much money you can have in your NDIS plan
Your NDIS plan says
- how much NDIS money you have for the supports you need
and
- what NDIS supports you can spend your NDIS money on.
We call it your total funding amount.
Your total funding amount depends on
- what NDIS supports you need
- how much your NDIS supports cost.
How much NDIS money you can get for different supports
There are 3 kinds of NDIS supports.
1. Core supports
Core supports means things you need every day.
2. Capital supports
Capital supports means things you need to use, like a communication board.
3. Capacity building
Capacity building means supports that help you do more things for yourself.
You will get NDIS money for each kind of support that you need.
Your NDIS plan will say how much NDIS money you can spend on each kind of support.
We call this your funding component amount.
How long does your NDIS money last for?
How long your NDIS money lasts for is called your funding period.
Your NDIS plan might have
- 1 funding period that goes for 1 year
or
- lots of funding periods that go for less than 1 year.
For example, a 1 year NDIS plan might have two funding periods that go for half a year each.
We will have a new framework for NDIS budgets
Framework means how we decide how much money should be in your NDIS budget.
We will find out how much NDIS money you should get by
- looking at your impairment notice
- looking at your needs assessment.
We will make new rules about NDIS supports.
NDIS supports means services you get from the NDIS, like a support worker.
The new rules will say what you
- are allowed to spend your NDIS money on
and
- are not allowed to spend your NDIS money on.
We will have new rules for when you do not have to pay an NDIS debt.
You might get an NDIS debt if you spend NDIS money on something that is not allowed.
Sometimes we might tell you what you must spend some of your NDIS money on to
- keep you safe
- make sure you do not run out of money.
Our new law makes rules for how an NDIS claim must be made.
Claim means you ask for NDIS money for a service or support.
The rules say a claim must
- be made by the person who manages your NDIS budget
- be made on the right form
- have all the right information.
The National Disability Insurance Agency will work with people with disability to
- make sure they understand the rules for NDIS claims
- make sure the rules for NDIS claims meet their needs.
The National Disability Insurance Agency means the people who look after the NDIS.
We call it the agency.
3. We will make sure we have the best possible services
Our new law says the agency can
- look at how NDIS money is spent
- change who manages your NDIS budget
- find out if there is fraud in how NDIS money is spent.
Fraud means someone hides the truth about how they spend NDIS money.
We will make new rules for the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission.
The NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission makes sure
- NDIS services are the best they can be
- NDIS services are safe
- people who give NDIS services do a good job.
We will make new rules about
- who can give services in the NDIS
- who cannot give services in the NDIS.
When will we make the new NDIS rules?
We will make the new rules after we ask people with disability what they want.
We will tell you when we want to ask people with disability about the new NDIS rules.
All the state and territory governments must agree to the new rules.
We will tell you when you need to follow the new rules.
More information
For more information contact the Department of Social Services.
Email enquiries@dss.gov.au
You can read more about our new law on our website
Website dss.gov.au/NDISreforms
Join our list to
- get new information about our law
- hear about consultations.
Website dss.gov.au/disability-and-carers
If you need help with English
Use the free Translating and Interpreting Service or TIS to make a phone call.
You can call the TIS in your language.
Call 131 450
Give the TIS officer the phone number you want to call.
If you need help to speak or listen
Use the National Relay Service to make a phone call.
You must sign up to the service first.
Website accesshub.gov.au/nrs-helpdesk(Opens in a new tab/window)
Call 1800 555 660
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