Caroline
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Caroline believes that all Australians with a disability should be eligible for the NDIS. It is discrimination, she told the Royal Commission, to exclude people aged over 65.
Caroline is in her 70s. She survived polio as a child and lives with incomplete quadriplegia. For 20 years she’s ‘been bound to a powered wheelchair’. She has no children and lives alone.
Recently Caroline has experienced increased dystonic tremors and the shaking has made it ‘extremely difficult, if not impossible’ for her to perform ‘most everyday tasks’.
Her situation has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
‘Previously, my active volunteerism and church involvement saw me eating out for many meals, but having now been at home alone for many months, I have recognised my decreased capability to do even simple things such as making toast for breakfast.’
Caroline needed increased support, but the Continuity of Support (CoS) program manager was reluctant to review her funding until she exhausted every other avenue of funding.
‘It is scandalous that seniors with disability must largely fend for themselves, when pressured by CoS staff to apply for multiple small sources of potential funding.’
Caroline thinks this wouldn’t happen if she was eligible for the NDIS.
For example, Caroline recently found out her provider is withdrawing the personal and home care services she has relied on for almost 40 years. The CoS program manager has suggested a new provider, but Caroline would need to make co-payments and pay service provider charges. NDIS clients would not have to do this. They would also have freedom of choice to engage a private support worker with an ABN.
When Caroline needed a new wheelchair, she asked CoS for funds to purchase a basic powered model. But the subsidy provided by the CoS ‘has not been increased in more than a decade’, so a new chair was too expensive. In contrast she knows an NDIS client who received the full cost of $32,000 for a state-of-the-art powered wheelchair.
When Caroline contacted the CoS program manager to discuss these and other issues she was referred to a variety of organisations and websites. But she found the different guidelines, eligibility requirements and application process so complex she gave up.
‘At this point in time I feel that if COVID-19 doesn’t get me, CoS will.’
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.