Faqs

Faqs

Registered providers of disability services and/or supports can also be registered Plan Management Providers, but need to be able to demonstrate there is no conflict of interest in operating both types of services.

No, there is no income or asset testing for NDIS services.


How does the NDIS assessment process work?

There are two assessment processes: first, an eligibility assessment to determine whether a person is eligible for funding, and if so, a planning assessment to determine a person’s goals and aspirations and then design an individualised funding package to help achieve those goals.

NDIA staff – called Planners – carry out these assessments using formal systems. Agency planners and participants work together to identify what current and future supports will be required to make progress on the participant’s goals, resulting in a ‘Statement of Participant Supports’ that sets out the supports to be provided or funded by the NDIS, based on what is considered ‘reasonable and necessary’ to enable a good life.

This could involve one-off and/or ongoing funding.

Each individualised funding package allows participants the right to choose the service provider or providers they wish to provide the supports identified in their package, and participants are entirely free to change service providers who do not adequately and satisfactorily meet their needs. We of course hope they choose the Ella Centre.

How will the NDIS work?

The NDIS will provide ongoing financial support through an approved plan for an estimated 460,000 Australians under the age of 65 with significant and permanent disability. The individual funding is intended to ensure the reasonable and necessary supports they need to live an ordinary life.

If a person is eligible for the NDIS, they will receive:

  • an annual plan with funding attached with which to purchase the services. The plan will include all services a person needs and the individual can obtain that service from one or any number of service providers.
  • aids and equipment that they have been assessed as needing from the service
  • provider/providers of your choice, including The Ella Centre. If circumstances, condition or needs change, NDIS participants will be able to apply to have their funding plan adjusted accordingly by contacting the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA).

The NDIS scheme’s key insurance principles:

  • The NDIS will provide support over a person’s lifetime
  • The NDIS includes building community capability and social capital, which will be especially important for people with disability who are not participants, their families and carers.
  • Another very high priority will be encouraging the full inclusion of people with disability, their families and carers in mainstream community life, through increased social and economic participation.

Unfortunately yes, but once enrolled in the NDIS you will not need to constantly re-prove your eligibility. An initial assessment by NDIA staff is however necessary to help determine your eligibility for the NDIS, and then to draw up your individualised support plan, including funding. Each plan will also include a monitoring and review timetable to accommodate future changes in an individual’s needs or circumstances.

This is a helpful book written for the NDIS  by the Endeavour Foundation. Just click on the link.

https://www.endeavour.com.au/our-endeavour-foundation/news/discover-guide

For people whose application is unsuccessful, there is also a formal review and appeals process, with an internal review process as a first step followed, if unsatisfactory, with full rights of appeal to the Commonwealth government’s Administrative Appeals Tribunal. The State Government is currently funding a service called Ability Links to assist people with a disability to access mainstream services if they do not get an NDIS package..


What is the NDIS?

The National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) is a federal government program to provide better support, coordination and access to services for people with disability. It’s a single national system, which means regardless of your disability or where you live, you will be able to equally access existing services.

The NDIS will see the disability sector change from block funding of disability service provider organisations by governments, to individualised funding for people with disabilities based on individual needs assessments.

Australia’s old welfare and charity model of disability funding will be replaced with a legislatively guaranteed ‘insurance’ model whereby all Australians who meet the eligibility criteria are entitled to NDIS funding for all ‘necessary and reasonable’ supports.

By allocating funding for disability services and supports to people with disabilities themselves, the NDIS aims to ensure that people with disability enjoy far greater choice and control over all necessary services and supports.

What services and equipment will the NDIS provide?

The National Disability Insurance Act, passed by the Commonwealth Parliament in 2012, sets out guidelines to help decide what can be funded, but generally the supports and services provided to you, if eligible, need to assist you to:

  • achieve the goals as outlined in your plan
  • become as independent as possible
  • develop skills for day-to-day living
  • participate in the community
  • where possible work and earn money

In practice this means providing support, as and if required, in areas including:

  • mobility
  • communication
  • self-care and self-management
  • personal care
  • social interactions
  • learning
  • capacity for social and economic participation.

Supports that will NOT be funded, under any circumstances, include those that are:

  • likely to cause harm to the participant or pose a risk to others
  • unrelated to the participant’s disability
  • duplicate other supports provided under alternative funding
  • part of day-to-day living expenses incurred by the general public and not related to disability support needs (e.g. rent, groceries, household bills)
  • related in any way to income replacement.

If they currently receive any form of federal or state government disability care and/or support funding, they are basically guaranteed to be eligible for NDIS funding according to the NSW State Government. The Ella provided a list of all our services users to ADHC to pass onto the NDIA.

The Ella Centre is a registered NDIS provider. This means whenever a person receives an NDIS funding package and plan they can contact the Ella Centre and we will discuss with you what we can provide to support you and your plan. If a service user is currently using the Ella Centre we will be more than pleased to continue to provide support and make the changes necessary to meet their needs in your NDIS plan.

The Ella will have a dedicated email address for service users/carers to contact us or ask questions:

ndis@ella.org.au

On 16 September 2015 the government announced that full rollout for NSW and Victoria will occur between 1 July 2016 and 30 June 2018. For the Inner West of Sydney it will commence on 1st July 2017.

The NDIS website also has an eligibility checker, called My Access Checklisthttp://www.ndis.gov.au/ndis-access-checklist if a person would like to get some initial idea of your own (or if a parent, your son or daughter’s) eligibility.

According to the NDIA, ‘reasonable and necessary’ means the NDIS will provide individual participants with whatever is necessary to achieve their life goals and aspirations and participate in the community to the fullest extent possible.

Commonly available disability supports and services the NDIS covers include aids and equipment, home and community care, personal care, domestic assistance, respite, home and vehicle modifications and community access. However, supports which are already available from other mainstream services, including from health, housing, education and aged care sectors, are most unlikely to be covered by the NDIS.

  • If you choose to self-manage your own plan’s financial and administrative processes, you are also entitled to request a “plan nominee” to support you with these processes.
  • A participant may request to use a Plan Management Provider, meaning you engage an organisation to undertake all financial and administrative processes involved on your behalf. This includes such tasks as paying supplier invoices, developing service agreements with providers, assisting you with the hiring and paying of staff and preparing reports and reconciliations on how NDIS funds are being used.
  • The third and most commonly used choice is to nominate the NDIS for this role, the agency will make all the payments necessary to any registered care and/or support providers chosen by the participant. You still choose the service provider you want to get your support from.

Who will be eligible?

To be eligible for the NDIS you need to be aged between 0-65 years old. When existing participants turn 65, they can choose either to continue with the NDIS or transfer to the aged care support system available to all Australians over that age.

The majority of people with a disability currently receiving an Ageing, Disability and Home Care (ADHC) funded service should be eligible for the NDIS.

Each person will be assessed based on the impact of their disability on functional capacity to communicate, interact socially, learn, move safely around their home and the built environment and manage personal care and affairs.

There will be NDIA offices in every city and large town, as well as a range of other ways to access the NDIS, including online, face-to-face and over the telephone. An NDIA office will be set up in Sydney.

There are no changes to arrangements in relation to the Disability Support Pension as a result of the NDIS.This, along with other income supports and payments such as Carer Payment, Carer Supplement, Carer Allowance and the Child Disability Assistance Payment are outside and entirely separate from the NDIS.

There is no cost to a person to get an NDIS plan. An NDIS plan will be specifically state what is covered by the funding they provide. The only cost will be for things not covered in your plan or if a person wants extra support above what the plan provides.

A participant’s funding will be divided into two parts – fixed supports and flexible supports.

  • The fixed supports will need to be spent on specified supports such as equipment, home modifications and certain types of early intervention therapy services. Generally speaking, ‘fixed supports’ are those services deemed necessary to ensure participants’ goals or desired outcomes can be met, or those which require certain skills or qualifications from the provider involved. If a certain amount is allocated for a new wheelchair, the funds will need to be spent on a new wheelchair.
  • ‘Flexible supports’ – such as funding for recreational, community access and home-based support activities – will however be funded in more general terms, enabling participants to switch funding from one item to another, depending on their personal needs from week to week. This can be negotiated with your service provider.

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For more information about The Ella Centre, simply pick up the phone, email or drop into reception to make an appointment, today!

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NDIS

With the introduction of the NDIS, funding in the disability and aged-care sectors is undergoing the biggest and best change in decades.

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