#NDIS #economy #fraud #productivity #alliedhealth #solution
Have you noticed the impact of the NDIS on our economy? 🤔 According to a recent article, the NDIS is not only a taxpayer sinkhole but also an economy killer. 😱
Here are some points to consider:
– More people are leaving essential, lower-paying jobs for higher-paying roles in the NDIS, leading to understaffing in crucial sectors like aged care.
– The shift to NDIS roles is affecting allied health services, causing a shortage of professionals in fields like speech pathology.
– Limiting the amount of money poured into the NDIS may be necessary to address these systemic issues.
As someone familiar with the NDIS, what do you think could help improve the situation? Share your thoughts and possible solutions below! 💬 #discussion #NDISsolution
Rather than limit, why not just fix. Even if you limit it, it’s still going to be broken. Sinkhole is sinkhole regardless.
My next door is an NDIS house. 1 person, 1 carer….drives a BMW. Go figure
Genuinely a stain on our society! This is a national disgrace and needs to be addressed before it’s too late.
When OTs get paid 200 an hour to bake Muffins (cooking therapy) it’s pretty messed up. Why would take on challenging clients when you get paid the same rate regardless. Providers are also complaining that the rate isn’t high enough, as it’s been frozen for 5 years.
Most allied health are decent though, people don’t study for four years to be a scurge on society. The issue is the line items that anyone can access that is creating most of this fraud. And abuse of vulnerable people, who see people with disabilities as nothing but cash cows. The NDIS is a failed experiment, plenty of other countries look after their vulnerable populations without these cost and exploitation issues.
It simply needs to be scrapped. The NDIS is entirely unsustainable and reform won’t resolve the structural issues.
Are those who want to retain it going to volunteer significantly higher income taxes to fund it? No? Didn’t think so…
In South Africa, occupational therapists are funded through private health insurance, but the effects are the same.
It’s a massive rort: private school teachers send children to OTs to learn how to write, and the rate of over-diagnosis in rich areas (equivalent living standard to Aus upper-middle class) is extraordinary. Intelligent young women who want to work with children become OTs rather than teachers since it’s more lucrative. Very few want to deal with actual adult rehab which is less well funded and less “fun”.
It’s extraordinary that these things weren’t taken into account when the NDIS was designed.
I’m not sure you can say because of 1:1 ratios we value aged care less (lots of other reasons but that’s not one) I’ve worked with participants fresh out of jail, I’ve been assaulted most my coworkers have been assaulted. I’ve had knives pulled on me I’ve been locked in offices while entire houses are flipped upside down by participants, ive had to jump out if windows to get away. Ive been stalked on social media and sexual harrased by known rapisits the list goes on……That ratio is needed sometimes because some people have very intensive behaviours, in aged care not so much, and if they do, the risk to others is significantly less due to their age.
You should see what they spend on crooks with mental illnesses (which is the majority of them). It’s not unusual to see NDIS housing, daily if not 24 hours carers and all kinds of other assistance. It can easily be 150k-1m a year. And this is for people that have been breaking the law their entire lives and have cooked themselves with drugs to the point they are psychotic. They all have schizo affective disorder, poly substance abuse disorder, ADHD and more. They are an unbelievable burden and they contribute nothing.
I’m a speech pathologist who works primarily with NDIS clients and I try my absolute hardest to make sure I’m providing as much value to the people I work with. I hear really tragic stories where other people who work with my clients set up big meetings with 5 people and claim 2-3k to talk about “how the client is doing” over a two hour meeting that could be an email chain, and the sad thing is that it just takes money away from what the kids really need.
I see the $193 fee as a challenge to provide an equal amount of value to the kids and families and I do that by redirecting a good amount of money back into buying resources and paying for courses to help me be a better clinician. I’m excited to see a huge crackdown on the NDIS because it’s turned badly out of proportion and seen as a cash cow, and it needs to be reeled in by getting rid of the bad eggs first.
Clients definitely see it as a way to get free stuff too – I’ve had clients come to me asking for everyday costs to be funded by the NDIS – barbers, petrol, iPads – but it just doesn’t pass the “reasonable and necessary” test (unless they need an iPad for communication). NDIS providers tend to forget they’re actively destroying the system that gives them money and I’m happy the government is trying to overhaul the system
I’m not a healthcare expert, but I really don’t understand why we can’t go back to whatever system we had prior to NDIS? It’s all well and good to look after disabled folk, but when we are in such a precarious economic situation, keeping the economy afloat and serving the vast majority should be paramount.
Anything medically necessary should come with Medicare and outside of that people need to fend for themselves and live within their means.
Scrap the NDIS.
The fact that Bill Shorten has a speechwriter on 300k per annum tells you everything you need to know about the NDIS. He may not have hired that speechwriter but the fact that his subordinate agencies did is no less of an indictment of how they all view taxpayer money.
I work aged care. We have an NDIS worker come in 3 days a week to “assist” one resident. He literally doesnt want to get out of bed and mostly naps and watches tv. They often curl up and sleep on the chair in the room. They feed him. Thats it. They dont even change him (we do the shitty work literally). Paid far more than I am running myself ragged in aged care.
BUT as I told them…….couldnt pay me enough for what must be dreadfully long shifts.
But it certainly makes me consider that NDIS is a rort on the taxpayer and that same money could be used so much better in disability and aged care.
One of the structural problems with the NDIS is that it was designed to be driven by market forces and the idea was that competition between providers would ultimately drive prices down.
The problem with that was that even from early estimations the disability support workforce was going to have to triple in size to meet demand at full scheme.
So what we currently have is a situation where demand for services is significantly outstripping supply and as a result everyone is able to charge the maximum amount allowable with the knowledge that there are plenty of participants for everyone.
This is gong to take a long period of time to balance out to an extent where it would have any impact on the cost of the scheme over all.
As someone who works in the sector most people are are genuinely caring and hard working people who are not trying to tort the system, just trying to help people and earn a living and the narrative that everyone is rotting the piss out of it is pretty tiring. It can take up to 3 months for the NDIS to acknowledge a communication about essential equipment for a participant and many people are constantly fighting to have their basic needs met.
For many people who need the ndis it isn’t cupcakes and cruises, it’s a constant battle for supports they need to get through each day.
There’s definite improvements that are required on a number of levels but ultimately this is a scheme that gives dignity and genuine participation in life to a large number of people who have historically been marginalised by their disability and the constant attacks from the government and the media on people with disabilities and people who work in the space are achieving their goal of making the disability sector the scapegoat for poor governance.
There are two fundamental problems with the NDIS.
Firstly the NDIS was designed by wealthy highly functional people, who regard the laissez-faire funding model to be acceptable. Because they exist in a world of financial security they do not know how the lives of the rest of us actually are like.
They don’t see the funding as tempting to misuse for things one normally could not afford. They don’t appreciate the motivation for others to commit fraud.
Because they are honest people, they are unaware of how or why dishonest people exist.
The concept of unchecked “choice and control” is a failure.
Secondly the NDIA are giving people too much money. Fraud and misuse are thriving because people are given money amounts above what they need.
Over generous plans promote misuse. If you needed every dollar for essential supports you would be a lot more careful on how it is spent.
Until these two fundamental issues are addressed there is no cost reduction possible in the NDIS.
I must be missing the satire but isn’t the real underlying issue that these hardworking, poorly paying jobs aren’t raising their wages to meet the market?
How much would it take you to work in aged care?
Decrease the funding but stagger it over say 5 years
I’m old enough to remember when the Government told us it would pay for itself through increased workplace participation.
we could have free dental, free public transport and free TAFE and it still would not cost half of what NDIS costs
What happens when every parent wants ritalin for their kid when in reality they just need to go out and play…
Literally have friends who shop around for doctors trying to get the “correct” diagnosis.
After being told by 3 doctors their kid doesn’t have adhd (they didnt) they finally got the prescription and NDIS funding they were after
Every single time this conversation comes up there are multiple comments about how it should be scrapped.
The question I was always with is what do you do with the participants? I get the perception is that these are well people with ADHD but there are plenty of profoundly disabled people who will still need care.
If the thought is the medicare or hospital system can take them on I’d like some of what you are smoking.
It needs a massive overhaul.
The issue I have, is the government has to heavily cut back public health/hospitals/education etc, that people are going to NIDS. Which is basically private enterprise, charging governments whatever they see fit for a service.
Scrap NIDS and reintegrate it into the public national health system. Which you fund, properly..
Probably by taxing mining, gas & banks. Who pay very little, or nothing.
The NDIS has been literally life changing for me as a person with a disability. It’s disheartening to see the scheme riddled with fraud, and I’m worried about how an overhaul might negatively impact those it’s meant to support, including myself. I simply couldn’t return to life before the NDIS.
I’ve worked as an allied health practitioner for an NDIS provider as a sole contractor. They absolutely cleaned up off the back of my work, each session would be 30 mins travel, 60 mins treatment and if it was a first visit 60 mins report writing. This would be billed at 194.99 a hour. They gave me 130 dollars a hour for treatment and report writing which is incredibly lucrative.
For an initial session it would cost the government 500 dollars for me to see a patient which would often last less than half an hour (but would still get billed at a hour). For context I work another job where I visit clients houses, we bill them 90 dollars for the exact same service. The clients often were given contracts which were signed and even though I always tried to push clients to read through the contract almost none of them cared what the cost was and just signed it. Some clients declined treatment on the day and it would still get billed to their account of travel and consult (300 dollars out of their package). It’s beyond a joke the way it’s set up and no one cares because it’s not their money.
One of my best mates has an allied health business and runs it very ethically. He had a client ask him last week if they could find a way to bill them 7k so when their plan reviews they would have that money there incase they needed it/wanted it. 7 grand. He declined, I would assume few would.
I have many patients who have immigrated to Australia just so their disabled children could be on the NDIS, why wouldn’t you? If I had a disabled child I would be doing anything to get a package. It’s a real shame and it really is a massive economic killer.
Go to Western Sydney and a lot of the NDIS business owners are driving around in the latest European cars (Audi, Mercedes and BMW).
Nationalise it, remove the profit motive for the thieves and grifters.
Run it properly.
Companies not paying any tax and moving money overseas is an economy killer. Comparing NDIS to the amount legally stolen from Australian sovereign wealth is a drop in the ocean. It’s so easy to focus in on the little things
“Nobody spends somebody else’s money as carefully as he spends his own”
If you want to control NDIS spending then I’d recommend an NDIS tax, paid equally by all tax payers.
About $200pm for each employed person will cover the $35bn scheme.
The amount the NDIS can spend will be constrained by the new tax. If the NDIS needs more money, then the tax needs to go up.
There will be howls of protest from the public and the clamps will be put on the scheme before you can say “cost of living crisis”
[https://imgur.com/Cuuhnp2](https://imgur.com/Cuuhnp2)
While the NDIS needs an overhaul for many other reasons, I don’t agree that one of those reasons is to deter people from moving over the aged care. The ratios NDIS have are how it probably should be. So OP, I think this particular argument needs to be redirected. Instead, it should be aimed at paying workers in aged care more and reducing the staff to patient ratios so they are not overworked and underpaid. In this regard, we should not be treating the NDIS as the problem.
*Nine out of 10 NDIS plan managers surveyed showed signs of fraud, and the justice system would be overwhelmed if all the scams were prosecuted, Dardo said in explosive testimony to the Senate.*
Jeezuz!! This whole thing needs to be scrapped and start again. Shorten has to be removed from any part of it.
NDIS is the third big stealer of employees. I remember people moving to the automotive industry to earn big bucks. Then there was a building boom. Then we had a mining boom – still people trapped in FIFO as they are addicted to the high wages. Now we have NDIS. Who knows what will be the next big employment opportunity
I can confirm. I work in a hospital delivering therapy to dementia patients, it is a job love. The pay is not keeping up with what private NDIS roles are offering. I don’t think NDIS should be cut, I think my wages should be higher.