Scramble to cut ties with disability assessors

The NDIA is working to terminate contracts with eight service providers that had been engaged to deliver the now-scrapped NDIS independent assessments program.

NDIS Minister Linda Reynolds. Picture: Martin Ollman

The National Disability Insurance Agency is working to terminate contracts with eight service providers the Morrison government had engaged to deliver the now-scrapped NDIS independent ­assessments program.

The disability sector has been in uproar since the government sought to bring in a new form of ­assessment for NDIS packages that could see people qualified in physical disabilities attempting to assess the needs of those with ­psychosocial disabilities.

However, the controversial ­assessment process was dumped at an extraordinary meeting of commonwealth and state disability ministers in June and Government Services Minister Linda Reynolds has now committed to co-designing a new method with participants and the states.

Pressed by Greens senator ­Jordon Steele-John about what would happen to the contracts that would have cost $339m to administer the assessments, National Disability Insurance Agency CEO Martin Hoffman said the government was working to bring those arrangements to a close “within weeks, not months”.

He said the providers – ­appointed just days after public consultation on the program came to an end – had never been paid ­because the independent assessments program never went ahead.

“We have formally communicated that to the eight counter-parties that no work orders will ever be issued under this standing panel arrangement, and we are currently in the commercial discussions with those organisations, to bring that standard panel to a close,” Mr Hoffman said.

Senator Reynolds added: “It’s my understanding they were fee-for-service … and those contracts will be cancelled and we haven’t spent anything.”

She said the states and territories were unanimous in believing there was a serious obligation to taxpayers to undertake some form of assessment for NDIS participants, but “what form that takes, it is too early to tell”. “It will be something that we will develop with the sector,” she said.

Senator Reynolds also used the hearing to again issue a warning about the sustainability of the scheme and insisted reform was required to ensure the scheme’s sustainability into the future given its rapidly rising cost, projected by the NDIA to exceed $40bn a year by 2025.

“Can I be really clear so there is no mistaking it. We are not cutting,” she said. “What we are talking about, and what we have funded in the budget, is sustainable growth.

“Can I be crystal clear. We are not looking at, talking about, thinking about implementing cuts to the NDIS budget. This is about making it sustainable so that it will endure for many generations.”

Senator Reynolds told the hearing that she would brief state and territory ministers next Friday on legislation she plans to introduce later this year.

The new bill will includes measures to crack down on people ­defrauding the scheme, as well as new funding deals with each jurisdiction. She confirmed the legislation would not include any form of independent assessments.

Earlier this week at a separate hearing scrutinising amendments to NDIS legislation, disability ­advocates accused the Morrison government of failing to consult with them over proposed changes to information-sharing. People with Disability Australia president Samantha Connor said she had serious concerns about parts of the bill that would allow for information to be shared across government authorities, threatening the privacy of participants.

“They have the potential to cause serious harm,” she said. “They could breach our rights under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.”