NDIS forerunner beset with poor service, red tape: lawyers

A NSW scheme for victims of motor vehicle accidents has spent less than 3pc of its funding on actual victims.

A NSW scheme for victims of motor vehicle accidents that is considered a forerunner for the National Disability Insurance Scheme has spent less than 3 per cent of its funding on actual victims since it started eight years ago.

Lawyers have cited the performance of the Lifetime Care and Support Scheme as evidence that using insuring principles to provide care is beset with problems, including poor service standards, red tape and an inflexible ­approach to the people it is supposed to assist.

The Australian Lawyers ­Alliance national president Andrew Stone told The Australian the problems evident in the NSW ­insurance scheme for victims of motor vehicle accidents would plague the NDIS if mistakes of the past were repeated at a national level. Both schemes use insurance principles to provide funding for care and support over a person’s lifetime.

“The NSW Lifetime Care and Support Scheme is inflicting poor service standards, onerous ­bureaucracy and lack of flexibility on people who need 24-hour care and assistance,” he said. “Our fear is that the NDIS is already heading down the same path.”

Alliance past president and chair of its NDIS subcommittee Tony Kerin said a recent federal parliamentary progress report on the national scheme flagged the precise same issues and these needed “urgent” attention.

“Let’s be clear, I think the NDIS is one of the best initiatives out of the government in the past decade,” he said. “But we have reservations about the efficiency with which it is being delivered.”

A recent submission from the NSW Bar Association to the state government said the fact that only $65 million of the $2.5 billion amassed by the LTCS had been spent on care plans was “concerning”.

Further, it notes, almost one-third of those receiving a service from a provider had experienced problems with that provider over a three-month period and nearly half were still waiting for a solution last month.

“People with disability have been disappointed for so long and I understand why there is no trust of this new scheme,” Mr Kerin said.

The joint standing committee parliamentary report into the NDIS, chaired by Liberal MP Mal Brough and tabled in parliament last month, found “alarming” early signs of people losing support on the NDIS, no clear solution about how health and education tied into the planning process and serious service delivery problems.