Diverse communities 'absolutely scared' by NDIS cuts

NDIS recipient Nidhi Shekaran says the new cuts are "anxiety-driven". (ABC News: Greg Bigelow) Link copiedShareShare articleNidhi Shekaran has fought harder than most to find her independence. Born in India, the disability advocate lives with cerebral palsy and vision impairment. Her family migrated to Australia in 2000, and she still remembers the struggle before the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) was introduced. "It was so hard to be on the pension for 10 years and then get onto the NDIS. We fought for this," Ms Shekaran said. Today, she receives carer support multiple times a week, which includes meal preparation, personal care, cleaning and some transport. So when Health and NDIS Minister Mark Butler announced sweeping changes to the $50 billion scheme last month, her reaction was visceral. "I was angry because I'm a disability advocate for other people as well…People are absolutely scared," she said. "It is a state of limbo. I still don't know. It is very anxiety-driven. It is very, very painful for me. Ms Shekaran is just one of thousands of NDIS participants waiting to learn if their services will be impacted as part of sweeping government reforms to the scheme. A core feature of the federal government's changes to the scheme is slashing participation from 760,000 to 600,000 by the end of the decade. The new approach will tighten eligibility by moving away from diagnosis-based assessments and take into account a person's functional capacity. It will also cap the cost for social and community participation funding, which is expected to reduce an average participant's yearly cap from $31,000 to $26,000. The program is the fastest growing part of the scheme and has increased from $4 billion to $12 billion in five years. To stem this growth, the funding will be brought back to 2023 levels. This change is one of the biggest areas of concern for culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) advocates and participants, like Ms Shekaran, who rely on these programs for connection with their community. "It is critical for me to maintain the social and community participation supports for people because it actually keeps my mental health in check," she said. Jeramy Hope, president of People with Disability Australia, said cuts to social programs could adversely impact CALD people who were already under-represented in the scheme. Jeramy Hope says the CALD community deserves to have a seat at the table over the new reforms. (ABC News: Greg Bigelow) "My fear is people will stay home because they don't feel connected, they don't feel safe, rather than looking for opportunities to find out how we can bring community together," Mr Hope said. "The [CALD] community is saying can we have a little bit more information in language that we can understand and digest so we can explain that change to families. It is not yet clear what local programs CALD participants will be able to go to when the change comes into effect. When Mr Butler unveiled the reforms, he also announced a $200 million Inclusive Communities Fund aimed at supporting community organisations to develop alternative programs. People from CALD backgrounds make up just 9 per cent of NDIS participants despite one in four Australians speaking another language other than English at home. The National Disability Insurance Agency's CALD Strategy 2018 estimated that by 2019 that figure would be about 20 per cent. Sadikshya Dulal, head of advocacy and research at the National Ethnic Disability Alliance (NEDA), said there were "compounding barriers" faced by people with disabilities from CALD backgrounds. "For newly-arrived families and people deeply isolated by language, social and community participation supports are the very things that connect them to cultural life, to community belonging," Ms Dulal said. "Removing or reducing that support without understanding what it means differently across communities…cannot be a neutral budget decision as this will affect participants from CALD backgrounds severely. "The NDIS was built on a promise of equal access for all Australians with disability but what was announced… puts that promise under real pressure." Ms McAllister described the changes as "challenging". (ABC News: Simon Amery) NDIS Minister Jenny McAllister said she understood there were "unique challenges" faced by diverse communities and pointed to the scheme's multicultural strategy that has engaged with thousands. "We know that change can be challenging and can be hard, but what would be harder would be a collapse in community confidence in this scheme," Ms McAllister said. "In working these changes through, we'll want to hear from all kinds of disability types and all kinds of communities. "We're determined to consult closely as we make these important changes to secure the scheme for the long term." The reforms will be introduced into parliament next week when Labor hands down its federal budget.

Diverse communities 'absolutely scared' by NDIS cuts

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