Layton
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Layton injured his back in a workplace accident in his early 50s. Some seven years later he is still in constant pain and uses a walking stick and frame to move about. It is difficult for him to get up and sit down, to do household tasks and to walk any distance.
Because Layton was on a work-for-the-dole program when the accident happened, he wasn’t entitled to any compensation. ‘There’s no help, which I think is wrong, and it stinks and it’s disgusting,’ he said.
Layton applied for a Disability Support Pension five times before he was successful.
He then applied for support from the NDIS – a process he described as ‘a nightmare from whoa to go’.
‘You ring them up and they just seem to make up their own rules as they go along.’
Eventually Layton met with an NDIS planner, who provided information that turned out to be incorrect. He told Layton that he wouldn’t lose any of his existing benefits by accepting the NDIS package, but Centrelink cut his mobility allowance. He told Layton the NDIS would fund a mobility scooter, but in fact it covered only a quarter of the cost. Layton couldn’t afford the rest.
Layton’s back has been getting more and more painful and he has developed additional health issues. Several years ago he became suicidal.
Layton contacted a charity that provides mental health services and ended up with a volunteer role in the organisation.
‘So I’d do that quite a bit, every week, and that sort of made me feel a little bit better. But, you know, it’s hard to try and keep your head in the right space if you understand what I mean when all you’re getting is around and around in circles,’ he told the Royal Commission.
Layton is at a loss to understand how the NDIA makes the decisions it does.
‘I’ve got friends … where I volunteer, [who] can walk, do their own housework, do everything and they’ve got $120,000. I’ve got $27,000.’
This doesn’t meet his expenses let alone allow him to save for a mobility scooter.
Layton’s back condition is inoperable, so all he can do is manage the pain. He takes medication and exercises. His preferred exercise is hydrotherapy, but he lives in a regional area where the nearest pool is four kilometres away.
‘No buses go past there, so I need to get a mobility scooter. But that’s not going to happen because they don’t want to, you know, come up with the money. They say, “Oh, well … we’ll pay someone to pick you up, drop you off.”’
But Layton says his NDIS funding can’t stretch to that. ‘I don’t know, I really don’t know. What can you do?’
Layton would like the NDIA to develop one set of rules, and for people who work there to know what those rules are.
‘Like, if I ring someone up and they’re supposed to know it and they say to me, “Well, I don’t really know,” well, how do you get on?’
Layton has a new care coordinator who is going to help him get his NDIS package reviewed, but there is no certain outcome to the process.
‘They warned me that this is [either] going to be good for me, or they could completely wipe it all off and I don’t get nothing. So, you know, back to square one if that happens.’
Disclaimer: This is the story of a person who shared their personal experience with the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability through a submission or private session. The names in this story are pseudonyms. The person who shared this experience was not a witness and their account is not evidence. They did not take an oath or affirmation before providing the story. Nothing in this story constitutes a finding of the Royal Commission. Any views expressed are those of the person who shared their experience, not of the Royal Commission.