Victorians with a disability bribed with ‘fast-food and cigarettes’ by predatory service providers

Vulnerable Victorians with high-value government supports are being “kidnapped” and financially abused by NDIS providers, a shocking report has revealed.

Vulnerable Victorians living in boarding houses are being “kidnapped” in the night by NDIS providers and taken to secret locations where cash from their government support is being drained, according to a damning new report.

The Mental Health Legal Centre investigation reveals people on high-value National Disability Insurance Scheme packages are among those being targeted by predatory service providers, who bribe them with fast food and cigarettes.

Almost 50 of the 115 providers in Victoria have been reported to the NDIS fraud task force for failing participants, with Minister Bill Shorten demanding the agency “urgently safeguard” them and take action against the services.

NDIS Minister Bill Shorten says predatory providers should be ashamed. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen

The report warns companies can “collect residents, take them to undisclosed locations and siphon the funding from their packages”.

“It has been necessary to take out guardianship on behalf of some particularly vulnerable residents to protect them from kidnap but this is fraught with difficulties.”

Mental Health Legal Centre general manager Charlotte Jones said she was aware of at least 70 people being “kidnapped” by an NDIS provider, who would drain their support and dump them at a hospital or accommodation.

“We’ve had people taken literally in the middle of the night,” Ms Jones said. “Other residents say: ‘Well, they told them they’d give them a 75 inch TV’ and then they were gone’.”

Supported Residential Services are privately operated businesses that provide accommodation and support for vulnerable Victorians, paid for by government support payments.

The majority of the 4000 people who live in this accommodation have a psychosocial or intellectual disability, mental illness, or an acquired brain injury and don’t have families.

Of those, about 1600 receive NDIS support. In Victoria, the average supported independent living package is worth $400,000 a person.

Victims don’t know they are being exploited. Picture: Peter Holt

Ms Jones said greater oversight was needed because businesses could own both accommodation and NDIS services. Some providers are alleged to charge participants for support services they never receive, threaten them with eviction, hold their ATM cards and make unauthorised withdrawals, according to the report.

Residents are also coaxed into changing providers through offers of “treats like KFC and McDonald’s” and cigarettes, which are now too expensive for them to buy themselves.

Some reported living in rooms divided by a hanging sheet, being given low-cost food and “being scared to sleep in their room at night”.

Mr Shorten said a new group will be established within the NDIS fraud task force to take action against providers.

“The NDIS cannot be the only lifeboat in the ocean, and every level of government, providers, the private sector, community groups and the broader community must work together to fix this vile problem,” he said. “Exploitative providers who are trafficking, kidnapping and coercing our most vulnerable people must be stamped out and not be able to operate again.”