The National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) is Australia's national approach to supporting people with disability. Its core purpose is to provide funding and support to eligible individuals with permanent and significant disabilities, enabling them to live more independently and participate more fully in their communities.
Interestingly, the National Disability Insurance Scheme Act 2013 (Cth) (the Act) does not provide an exhaustive list of conditions that constitute a disability for the purposes of the NDIS: there’s no golden ticket for automatic entry.
Rather, participants must satisfy a set of criteria to be eligible for the NDIS (namely, s24/s25 of the Act). This approach can be a double-edged sword, as it allows for a broader interpretation of what constitutes a disability but also creates a higher access threshold for prospective participants. However, this flexibility in the Act is crucial, given the ever-evolving medical discoveries and the existence of rare, unconventional disabilities that significantly impede functional capacity.
The criteria is:
- 1. To have a disability that is either intellectual, cognitive, neurological, sensory or physical, or be a psychosocial impairment attributable to one or more impairments.
- 2. The impairment is likely to be permanent (in that the participant has had the condition for a significant period and exhausted all available treatment options); and
- a. The impairment results in reduced functionality in one or more of the following:
- i. communication;
- ii. social interaction;
- iii. learning;
- iv. mobility;
- v. self-care;
- vi. self–management, and,
- b. the impairment impacts your capacity for social and economic participation, and;
- c. it is likely that your will require NDIS support for the rest of your life.
- a. The impairment results in reduced functionality in one or more of the following:
When applying for access to the NDIS, it is essential that the disability or disabilities are accurately documented. This ensures the NDIS can develop a plan that is appropriately funded and tailored to a participants needs. In supporting participants through an internal or external review of an NDIS decision, we have encountered numerous cases where we have discovered that a participants’ disability has been incorrectly recorded from the outset.
At Burke Lawyers, our team has extensive experience assisting clients through both the internal review process with the NDIS and the external review process to the Administrative Review Tribunal.
If you would like to learn more about how we can support you if you are unhappy with a decision made by the NDIS, please contact our office on +61 3 9822 8588.
