Anonymous – 27/09/2021

The current NDIA process is bureaucratic.
An example is a manual payment I submitted over 2 months ago and am still waiting on an outcome.

When the NDIA first came to Canberra, I choose self-managed as that allowed me to access the many organisations that offered services that were not NDIA organisations. At my last planning session I found there was a third option available, Plan Manager, which I jumped at as managing the invoicing for two boys on the NDIA was a nightmare.

The problem was that once I was Plan Managed I couldn’t make payments myself and I had a few invoices pre signing up for Plan Managed.

The inflexibility and lack of choice in the way the NDIA services and processes are currently set makes it extremely difficult for a parent to manage the services.

Additionally the way the budget is categorised is also confusing, I don’t understand why I need 17 buckets for the distribution of the NDIA funds, one would be great.

There is a lot more to say about my journey from the incredible Therapy ACT Services that existed before the NDIA, however as always I am time poor so will end here.

Ok, one more example. On Therapy ACT Early Intervention program I had 900 hours per year for support for my boys, once the NDIA came in, it dropped to 300 hours per year.

That’s insane.