28/08/2024
🌿 27 August 2024
🥳 THE GOVERNMENT'S NDIS LEGISLATION HAS PASSED PARLIAMENT.
The following is what we know up to date.
👍FACTS we have about changes to the NDIS.
✅ Key points:
• The government’s NDIS legislation has passed parliament, opening the pathway for some of the changes recommended by the NDIS Review.
• More flexible budgets based on need rather than diagnosis will be a new way to build NDIS Plans.
• However, there will be a limit for funding top-ups for people who have overspent on their plans.
A quantity of the proposed NDIS changes is ready to begin after new legislation was passed in the Federal Parliament last week. The amendments are the result of recommendations from the independent NDIS Review completed in 2023.
Here at Disability Pathway Solutions, we know there is considerable discussion about these changes which are the most substantial in the NDIS since it was established.
This is what we understand so far.
WHY ARE THE NDIS ADJUSTMENTS BEING MADE?
• The government is changing NDIS legislation as it employs some of the NDIS Review recommendations.
• However, as the NDIS works are guided by law, the laws need to change before some recommendations can be applied.
• Even though the new rules will be implemented in stages, there is not a lot of news on when each change will be made.
Budgets will be based on needs rather than diagnosis.
In the future, a new planning framework will be available to build NDIS Plans with a reasonable and necessary budget. This will be different from identifying supports line-by-line.
A needs assessment will base the budget on each outcome. At this stage, we do not know what the needs assessment process will be until it has been developed.
• While the assessment itself covers a person’s disability needs, NDIS funding can only be provided concerning impairments that meet the disability or early intervention requirements.
• Participants will possibly not have to apply to the NDIA for a variation or reassessment after this change is made as this gives the participant more flexibility to use their plan and support their needs.
• The good news is that people already in the scheme will continue to receive funding under the current framework until the new budget framework is rolled out.
In addition to the good news, NDIS Minister Bill Shorten has reassured participants that the government does not intend to make participants pay for their needs assessment.
FURTHER FLEXIBLE FUNDING.
People with disability on the NDIS will have more ‘choice and control’ of their supports with a flexible budget.
Flexible funding will be obtainable where a person’s ‘needs assessment’ shows they require at least some NDIS supports that are not stated supports.
• Participants will no longer be constrained with line-by-line plans that specify specific supports and support intensity
• Flexible funding can be spent for any NDIS supports that meets a person’s support needs. However, they must be appropriately funded by the NDIS.
• The default position is the inclusion of flexible funding in a plan.
• In individual circumstances, such as where a participant has a history of overspending, the NDIS may restrict the spending of some or all of the flexible funding.
• Future changes will set out the procedures by which the budget is governed, and when supports can be stated (as non-flexible items) in plans.
NEW DRAFT DEFINITION OF NDIS SUPPORTS.
Discussions have been centred on the government’s planned new definition of NDIS support. The new definition is intended to provide transparency covering supports that can be funded by the NDIS and those that cannot.
View the draft List of NDIS Supports here:
https://engage.dss.gov.au/consultation-on-draft-lists-of-ndis-supports/draft-list-of-ndis-support/
Funding periods of up to 12 months.
Funding an NDIS Plan will be segregated into funding periods showing the amount of flexible and stated funding available in each period.
To ensure funding is not spent over the total budget, each period will be no more than 12 months. If funding is not used within one plan period, it will be rolled over into the next, providing it is under the same plan.
TIGHER TOP-UP CONTROLS.
For people who have overspent their plan funds, reforms will limit top-ups. While it is unclear how this will work, it appears that the NDIS will implement tighter controls on plan reassessments, expected to begin in September 2024.
NEW CLAIMING FRAMEWORK AND TIMEFRAMES.
Claims on NDIS Plans will be made the same as payments made under Medicare. Claims must be made within two years of the support being provided. This rule applies immediately.
However, there will be a 12-month ‘grace period’ following the start of the Bill during which no time limit on claims will apply.
In the future, and after the form is created, there will also be new requirements for making claims. For a claim to be payable, it must be made by the person managing funding under a plan, contain all required information and be made in an approved form.
EARLY INTERVENTION PATHWAYS.
• A new early intervention pathway for children who enter the scheme under the early intervention requirements will be established.
• The NDIS will work with the disability community to develop a new early intervention pathway.
A needs-based assessment is mandatory to enter the scheme.
Automatic access will no longer be guaranteed with certain medical diagnoses, while there are no changes to eligibility for the NDIS.
Instead, people entering the scheme will have to undergo a needs-based assessment to provide proof they have significant functional impairment (the impact disability has on a person’s life).
From 1 January 2025, all new participants will receive a notice setting out the kind of impairments they have. Participants will be able to request a variation of this notice.
NEW FOUNDATIONAL SUPPORTS.
The Australian Government and state/territory governments are working together on developing a new foundational supports model for non-NDIS home and community supports.
Foundational supports are for both NDIS participants and people with disability under the age of 65 who are not eligible for the NDIS.
The good news is there will be a phased approach to designing and delivering foundational supports. Services are expected to be commissioned from mid-2025 and progressively scaled to full rollout by mid-2027.
You do not need to do anything.
The new laws will come into effect 28 days after the Act is formally approved.
WHILE WE ARE WAITING....
• All access and planning processes, decisions and supports will continue in line with current operational guidance
• Participants should continue spending per their plans and
Providers should continue to claim supports in line with current operational guidance.
DISABILITY PATHWAY SOLUTIONS CAN HELP.
If you would like to know more about what we can do for you, call our friendly office personnel on 0402 058 904 or email>
admin@disabilitypathwaysolutions.com.au
And you can check out our Facebook business page today in a few easy steps
Disability Pathway Solutions page
https://www.facebook.com/DarrenWaineDisabilityPathwaySolutions/
All the best,
Darren and the team
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