NDIA confirms 2500 participants have ‘interacted with the justice system’

Labor is considering changing protocols to ensure those with serious criminal histories don’t have the ability to self manage their own plans.

The Coalition has ramped up its attack on Labor in recent days over how many people with criminal histories were accessing the taxpayer-funded NDIS.

The National Disability Insurance Agency has revealed the number of people on the scheme who have “interacted with the justice system” is sitting at about 2500, as Labor considers changing protocols to ensure those with serious criminal histories don’t self-manage their plans.

In light of revelations convicted rapist and NDIS participant Thomas Hofer had used his taxpayer-funded NDIS plan to seek out “fit” female support workers between the age of 18 and 35, the agency was fronted with questions in senate estimates over how many participants had convictions.

While officials were able to confirm just 2500 of the scheme’s almost 600,000 participants had interacted with the justice system, they were unable to say how many had been charged with violent sexual crimes as Mr Hofer had.

“We don’t have data sharing agreements that gives that level of detail,” NDIA deputy chief executive officer Scott McNaughton said.

“We rely very heavily on getting that information from the state and territory justice systems. We don’t automatically get that data … it’s manual.”

Opposition Assistant NDIS spokeswoman Hollie Hughes said it seemed as though there was no appropriate “risk assessment” to ensure participants didn’t pose a threat to support workers.

Mr McNaughton said the NDIS Act assumed a person with disability had “choice and control” over their lives.

But he revealed that work was under way to improve this data exchange as the agency also ­investigated the feasibility of blocking anyone with a violence criminal history from self-managing a plan.

Instead, NDIS participants with such convictions would be forced to accept plans that were managed directly by the agency, which would connect them with support workers and services.

The Coalition has ramped up its attack on Labor in recent days over how many people with criminal histories were accessing the taxpayer-funded scheme, ­demanding transparency over whether Mr Hofer was the only participant that the government knew of that had “exploited” the NDIS to perpetrate predatory behaviour.

Following the NDIA’s confirmation of how many participants had criminal convictions, opposition NDIS spokesman Michael Sukkar said it was essential the agency came clean on how many of those individuals were managing their own plans.

“Urgent review is needed to disclose how many individuals with serious criminal convictions are receiving NDIS funding, and how many of those are on self-managed plans,” he said.

“This is vitally important to not only protect the safety of carers and providers, but to also preserve the integrity of the scheme.”