Health Services Union demands to blow hole in NDIS costs

Demands by the Health Services Union would ‘have significant implications for the costs’ of the NDIS.

Demands by the Health Services Union would “have significant implications for the costs” of the $22 billion National Disability ­Insurance Scheme, putting its members on a collision course with disabled people and ­employers.

HSU, working with the Australian Services Union and ­United Voice, has warned that a gutting of worker conditions is ­already under way in the sector, and has put its concerns to the Fair Work Commission’s modern award review and to the Productivity Commission’s inquiry into NDIS costs.

“Individualisation of supports, coupled with low and capped pricing, is eroding workforce conditions and increasing income ­insecurity,” the union’s submission to the inquiry says.

“Employers are using the spectre of the NDIS to argue for reductions to minimum shift ­engagement lengths in the four-yearly review of the Social, Community, Home Care and Disability Services Industry Award 2010.”

Under the NDIS, however, many people with disabilities will themselves become employers, responsible for hiring their own staff to provide support during the hours for which they are funded by the scheme. In some cases, these shifts go no longer than an hour at a time, most often in the mornings and evenings.

One major disability services provider in the Victorian trial has reported a fivefold increase in the number of shifts lasting less than one hour in just one year; from 3 per cent to 15 per cent.

The Australian National Audit Office last year predicted it would “take at least a decade for the right number of disability workers and businesses to come online”, but stakeholders have warned such hopes will be jeopardised if workforce issues are not addressed immediately.

In a separate submission, law firm Maurice Blackburn — at which Julia Gillard’s former chief of staff, Ben Hubbard, directs public policy — slammed the lack of clarity on eligibility and a rapid rollout schedule which, it said, would combine with a workforce shortage in a “disastrous” way.

“The rollout time frame of the NDIS is highly ­ambitious and ­increases the serious risk of inadequate delivery of services to participants,” the submission says. “It also poses serious financial risks to the scheme as a whole.”

The scheme eventually will help 460,000 people — assuming there are no population blowouts — but must add 300,000 of those in just one year, from 2017 to 2018.

“The numbers ... may well prove to be a gross underestimate,” Maurice Blackburn says.

The union and the peak body for providers, National Disability Services, say NDIS price ­assumptions for support hours and items are causing providers to lose money and staff to quit.

The “reasonable cost model” devised by the NDIS assumes workers will need three minutes every hour they are working to deal with the complex administrative load required by the ­bureaucracy and makes little distinction between different markets around Australia.

“The HSU’s firm position is that (this model) is modified or ­replaced with a model that reflects the true cost of delivery,” the union submission says.

“The HSU is aware that this change, if adopted, would have significant implications for the costs of the scheme. No change, however, is not an option.”