Latest news with #NationalDisabilityInsuranceAgency
Sky News AU
a day ago
- Business
- Sky News AU
More than 3000 Aussies to be hit as financially challenged aged care, disability services company Annecto collapses
More than 3000 Australians will need new homes or new carers as an aged care and disability services company has collapsed. Annecto is shuttering its doors from July after 70 years as financial challenges and shifts in the aged care and disability sectors have forced the company to close. 'As a result, it was identified that Annecto would be unable to continue providing services in the future,' the company states on its website. Aussies at Annecto locations across Victoria, NSW, Queensland and the ACT will be helped by the company as they search for other care facilities. 'Our focus now is working together to transition the people we support and the services they receive to other trusted providers who can continue delivering the support they need and deserve,' Annecto said. The company is working with various government agencies to transition its patients – including the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing, the National Disability Insurance Agency and the Department of Veterans' Affairs. Annecto said it remained committed to prioritising the welfare of its patients as they transition out of the company's homes. 'We are committed to the people we support and all Annecto staff during this time,' the company said. 'We are committed to compliance and ethical service delivery, ensuring our transition process aligns with customer, employee, and regulatory expectations.' Annecto chair Colleen Furlanetto thanked the company's founders and community for their contributions to the company. 'As we approach this next chapter, we do so with the same spirit that inspired Annecto's beginnings—ensuring that every person has access to the support they need, delivered with dignity and respect,' Ms Furlanetto said. The collapse comes after Labor passed its Aged Care Act which will change how different types of retirees in aged care are billed. The major change is the lifetime cap will rise from about $82,000 to about $130,000. Australia's aged care sector is not currently a profitable industry, but the changes in billing could lead to further investment into the growing sector as the ageing population grows.
Sydney Morning Herald
2 days ago
- Health
- Sydney Morning Herald
NDIS to slash fees for key health workers to curb costs
Key National Disability Insurance Scheme health workers such as physiotherapists, dietitians and podiatrists will have their payments slashed in the new financial year as the agency that runs the $48.8 billion scheme seeks to bring down its costs. The National Disability Insurance Agency says a review of more than 10 million transactions found that many pricing limits for NDIS therapies were out of step with broader market rates. In some cases, NDIS providers were charging fees that were 68 per cent higher. The agency confirmed on Wednesday that the maximum hourly rate for NDIS physiotherapists would be cut by $10 from July 1, resulting in a new national cap of $183.99 an hour. Similarly, dieticians and podiatrists will have their maximum hourly rates slashed by $5 in the new financial year, resulting in a new national cap of $188.99 for both professions. 'Inflated therapy price points – initially established to support market development in some states and territories in 2019, do not have conclusive evidence to continue,' the NDIA said in a statement. 'Data confirms that people with disability have been paying 'NDIS premiums' for certain therapies. As a result, a number of price points have been adjusted to align with non-NDIS market rates. 'These pricing adjustments are a big step towards further safeguarding participants to ensure they are charged the same as anyone else.' While some professions have had their maximum NDIS rates cut as part of this year's annual pricing review, disability support workers will have their price limit lifted by 3.95 per cent to reflect the recent increase to the minimum wage. Introduced in 2013 by the Gillard government, the NDIS today supports up to 700,000 Australians with a disability and contributes to some 500,000 jobs.
The Age
2 days ago
- Health
- The Age
NDIS to slash fees for key health workers to curb costs
Key National Disability Insurance Scheme health workers such as physiotherapists, dietitians and podiatrists will have their payments slashed in the new financial year as the agency that runs the $48.8 billion scheme seeks to bring down its costs. The National Disability Insurance Agency says a review of more than 10 million transactions found that many pricing limits for NDIS therapies were out of step with broader market rates. In some cases, NDIS providers were charging fees that were 68 per cent higher. The agency confirmed on Wednesday that the maximum hourly rate for NDIS physiotherapists would be cut by $10 from July 1, resulting in a new national cap of $183.99 an hour. Similarly, dieticians and podiatrists will have their maximum hourly rates slashed by $5 in the new financial year, resulting in a new national cap of $188.99 for both professions. 'Inflated therapy price points – initially established to support market development in some states and territories in 2019, do not have conclusive evidence to continue,' the NDIA said in a statement. 'Data confirms that people with disability have been paying 'NDIS premiums' for certain therapies. As a result, a number of price points have been adjusted to align with non-NDIS market rates. 'These pricing adjustments are a big step towards further safeguarding participants to ensure they are charged the same as anyone else.' While some professions have had their maximum NDIS rates cut as part of this year's annual pricing review, disability support workers will have their price limit lifted by 3.95 per cent to reflect the recent increase to the minimum wage. Introduced in 2013 by the Gillard government, the NDIS today supports up to 700,000 Australians with a disability and contributes to some 500,000 jobs.
The Guardian
06-02-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
Peter Dutton coy on what public servant jobs he will slash if he wins election
Peter Dutton has yet to reveal any detail about his plan to slash public servant jobs in Canberra under a government he leads, as Labor warns his plan will cut crucial government services and risks another robodebt. In a rare press conference at Parliament House on Thursday, the opposition leader provided little information on his plans to get the 'economy back on track' through slashing government jobs and other 'wasteful spending'. 'We'll make announcements in relation to our policies in due course, but I do note that with the 36,000 additional, that brings the public service up to over 200,000,' he said. 'I'm happy to make the announcement at the time, but I've been clear we're not having 36,000 additional public servants in Canberra.' Dutton claimed the growth under the Albanese government was to 'please the unions' not 'provide a more efficient delivery of service'. The public service minister, Katy Gallagher, described Dutton's plans as 'reckless and arrogant' and a 'return to worse services, expensive consultants, and the era of robodebt'. Since the Coalition's 2022-23 budget, the average staffing level for the public service has risen by 35,592 roles, most notably in the frontline services, such as the National Disability Insurance Agency, Services Australia as well as the defence and health departments. The Australian Public Service Commission's latest State of the Service report showed the number of public servants had risen to more than 185,000 as of June 2024, an 8.9% increase on the previous year. Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email In a speech to the Liberal-aligned Menzies Research Centre in January, Dutton foreshadowed the axing of diversity and inclusion positions, along with 'change managers' and 'internal communication specialists'. 'Such positions, as I say, do nothing to improve the lives of everyday Australians,' Dutton claimed. 'They're certainly not frontline service delivery roles that can make a difference to people's lives.' A number of Dutton's frontbench have responded differently when asked which jobs would be slashed. Shadow ministers Jane Hume and David Coleman did not address questions this week about whether they would oversee cuts in their own future portfolio departments, if elected. The Nationals leader, David Littleproud, has previously suggested all 36,000 jobs should be slashed but has softened his language since. 'It's time for us to get out of your life, not put more public servants into it,' he said in Canberra in early February. Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion A Coalition reshuffle in January saw the promotion of Jacinta Nampijinpa Price to a new Elon Musk-inspired shadow ministry role centring on government efficiency. Price told The Australian the Coalition 'won't be cutting' the public service workforce, if elected, but would 'halt' its growth. A few days later, the Country Liberal senator told 2GB diversity and inclusion roles would be on the chopping block. The Community and Public Sector Union deputy secretary, Rebecca Fawcett, accused the opposition of being deliberately coy to avoid losing support. 'Peter Dutton is not being honest with Australians about what public services he'll cut because he wants you to believe it won't be the ones you use or rely on,' she said. 'Peter Dutton and the Liberals don't want a strong public service that works for mums and dads, veterans, students and pensioners – they want to funnel taxpayer money into the pockets of big consulting firms while leaving everyday Australians to fend for themselves. 'The only people that win from Peter Dutton's plan to slash public services are consultants from places like PwC and KPMG.' Dutton did not rule out a return to limiting spending on consultants, but said 'if there is wasteful spending taking place, then it should be cut'. An Albanese government audit in 2023 found the former Morrison government had spent $20.8bn outsourcing more than a third of public service operations. Nearly 54,000 full-time staff were employed as consultants or service providers for the federal government during the 2021-22 financial year – the equivalent of 37% of the 144,300-employee public service, it found.
The Guardian
26-01-2025
- Health
- The Guardian
‘Comedy of errors': NDIS reform leaves disabled Australians fearing what comes next
For people with disability, the end of 2024 was a rollercoaster. New legislation for the National Disability Insurance Scheme started coming into effect in October, with new lists of what can and can't be funded, changes to early intervention requirements and more, already altering the way some 646,000 people receive support from the $35bn program. The reforms are not yet complete, though, and March is shaping up to be crunch time: that's when consultation is expected on things like the support-needs assessment tool – a framework for determining a person's impairments and how much public money should be allocated to them. But the timelines are so tight, and the space for consultation so narrow, that advocates say the promised co-design on critical parts of the new system is all but impossible. So-called 'foundational supports', to be provided by the states and territories and agreed upon by national cabinet more than a year ago, are supposed to be in place by 1 July. But despite the new legislation already restricting access and support to the NDIS, there is very little agreement on what those foundational supports actually are, let alone the architecture in place to provide them. Throw in a new NDIS minister and a looming federal election, and anxieties in the sector are high. Making it worse is the undercurrent of palpable fear from people with a disability that they will receive a letter from the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) telling them they may no longer be eligible for the scheme that has been a salvation for many – and which they were told would be for life. This is the context in which a decision by the Administrative Review Tribunal came this month, calling into question the legal basis for the NDIA's practice of reversing the onus of proof of eligibility and placing it on to participants. Veronica Stephan-Miller, the woman at the centre of that case, says her recent engagement with the NDIA has been so stressful that at times she stopped eating. Stephan-Miller, who has fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, ischaemic heart disease and ankylosing spondylitis, received notice that her eligibility was under review in March last year. The NDIA mails these notices, giving participants 28 days from the letter's date-stamp to respond with more information or they will make a decision based on what they have. 'I have a PO box,' says Stephan-Miller. 'And at that time I wasn't getting my mail regularly, so it was 10 days before I actually picked the letter up. I went into panic mode.' The rheumatologist Stephan-Miller needed to see was booked out for months and it was 'a comedy of errors' trying to secure an extension to the 28-day timeline. A disability pensioner, she had to crowdfund to pay for the new assessments. All the way through, she kept trying to find out precisely what information the NDIA was lacking. 'I asked 'What do I need to submit?' I asked the plan reviewer. I asked the assessor. I emailed the office of the CEO, and they would not give me a definite answer,' Stephan-Miller says. The opaque and time-sensitive nature of the reassessments is not only alarming but can border on the absurd: one advocate told Guardian Australia of a person whose eligibility was reviewed not due to lack of evidence of their permanent disability, but because the agency didn't have a copy of their ID on file – a fact that only became clear after repeated inquiry. People with disability say this practice of reversed onus of proof, which began before the new laws came into effect, has shades of the robodebt fiasco – in which welfare recipients were forced to prove they did not owe a debt to the commonwealth, rather than the commonwealth proving that they did – and it's just as distressing. It's frustrating, too, for the allied health workers who provide the documentation, particularly functional capacity reports, that the NDIA uses to determine eligibility and funding levels. Muriel Cummins, founding director of Occupational Therapy Society for Invisible and Hidden Disability, says 'the pace of reform is going at an absolute gallop' but allied health professionals have been left entirely out of the loop by the government and the agency, despite the critical place of their work in the system. 'We're seeing people who have conditions like [multiple sclerosis] and Parkinson's, which are lifelong, permanent and often degenerative conditions, receiving notices for eligibility reassessments. It's a real shock for the participants, and it's also a real challenge for us as therapists to understand what the NDIA is actually asking for,' Cummins says. Anecdotal reports suggest eligibility reassessments are often triggered by plan review requests, and at a Senate Estimates hearing in November last year, NDIA acting chief executive Scott McNaughton seemed to confirm this. Not only was the agency prioritising 'unscheduled reassessments' of eligibility, he said, but they may be triggered by the planner. He also disclosed that 1,200 NDIS participants, mostly children, were being reassessed every week, with nearly half of them booted off the scheme. Jeff Smith, chief executive of Disability Advocacy Network Australia (Dana), says without foundational supports in place to catch them, the sudden removal of NDIS access has profoundly negative consequences for people. 'The approach here might be OK under the letter of the law, but it certainly breaks the spirit of the legislation. It's certainly inconsistent with the idea that the changes that we make will take place in lockstep with the implementation of foundational supports, so that people are looked after under some system or another,' says Smith. Sign up to Afternoon Update Our Australian afternoon update breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what's happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion Dana wants the NDIA to 'slow things down' and extend all the timeframes to at least 90 days. There are problems on the provider end, too. Rodney Jilek, founding director of Community Home Australia, says ongoing delays in plan reviews are leaving participants without funds and putting providers in the position of being forced to withdraw care. Jilek's Canberra-based not for profit provides supported homes for people with neurocognitive disabilities, often progressive, who require round-the-clock care. But at Christmastime he had to make the decision to move a client with Huntington's chorea to a hospital after waiting for a plan review for around six months. 'His care needs were through the roof. He exhausted all his funding … and we were just told, 'Oh, well, you just have to provide care for free'. That's $11,000 a week,' Jilek says. 'We kept doing it for as long as we possibly could. In the end, I rang the NDIA and said, 'I can't keep doing this. I can't provide supports for free'. And they said to me, 'Well, why are you doing it?' They said, 'You need to make a business decision and withdraw care, withdraw supports'. So I did. I sent him to hospital, and he got a new plan within 24 hours.' The experience was 'incredibly upsetting for everyone,' Jilek says. In addition, Jilek says the agency's focus on possible provider fraud has caused such a bottleneck in payment of accounts at the NDIA that he found himself $540,000 short at the end of last year. While the NDIA has caught up on many of the payments, the delays have had ongoing implications for his tax affairs. 'I had to take out a cashflow loan just to actually pay people because we were owed so much money,' Jilek says. 'I kicked and screamed and I virtually cried on the phone … I had to put in $450,000 of my own money to keep the business afloat, because we were basically bankrupt.' In response to questions from Guardian Australia, the new NDIS minister Amanda Rishworth said she was in the process of arranging meetings with representatives of the disability community to discuss matters related to the scheme. 'I take any allegations of misconduct or unlawful practices very seriously, and I have sought advice from the NDIA on their eligibility reassessment processes and evidentiary requirements to understand the issues raised,' Rishworth said. A spokesperson from the NDIA said the additional 1300 frontline staff recruited in the last financial year had reduced delays, and that the investment was continuing. Do you have a story? Contact:
