Claretta

Claretta is autistic and has major depressive disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder. She manages her NDIS plan using an online platform to hire a team of independent support workers.

Claretta told the Royal Commission there is a downside to these ‘informal supports’.

‘My disability is social, with the autism, so going in self-managing it’s definitely been a baptism by fire. You’re managing these people in different areas to support you, to meet your goals. And I think there’s this grey area because they’re unregistered. In most domains, there’s been some issues in terms of abuse and exploitation. You know, the wrong people, the people that should not be working with vulnerable people, they see me as a commodity.’

One support worker lasted about a month. He convinced Claretta to hire both him and his partner and ‘used manipulative tactics for his own agenda’, she said.

‘His role was to connect me socially … At social events he just self-promoted and I was pretty much mute. He stood over me. And he was trying to just exploit as much as he could.’

Claretta said the man overcharged for services and pressured her to pay him more after seeing her ‘credit score is really high’.

‘He was just always money grabbing … trying to get more money out of me. And he just turned into a creep. And he propositioned me for sex … And I had to manage that situation because his partner was my primary support worker. And he’s touching me under the table … I was just so sad about the whole situation.’

Claretta reported it to the NDIS complaints line and spoke with her support coordinator.

‘She swept it under the rug and talked to me in a mean tone. She said, “Oh [Claretta], that’s finished now.” And the conclusion was, when he was spoken to about it he denied it. And so that’s just been left as it was.’

Because the NDIS ‘did nothing’, Claretta turned to the booking platform, which ‘took it seriously and got him out of there’.

‘I think that was the only thing that came out of it. The stress of that made me episodic. And I had stuff going on with my mental health. And once again, I had no supports during an episode. Like, it’s been a pattern.’

Claretta continued to have problems with new support workers who were ‘controlling and intimidating’. With one, ‘it was just flat-out harassment’.

‘Sometimes I have had support workers that dabble in criminal activity. Now I know that I need to get them properly checked. They’ve got to have NDIS clearance check and a police check. I’ve learnt the hard way.’

Through all of this, she said, her support coordinators failed to help.

‘There’ve been times that I expressed to them that someone’s not treating me properly and they don’t do anything about it. You can’t rely on them.’

Sometimes she feels like switching to an NDIS managed plan because of the problems with unregistered providers.

‘It feels like a full-time job when it shouldn’t be … You’ve got to work out who’s lying, who’s just feeding me bullshit so they can get the money. But if you give up power and control to an organisation, then I’m left waiting. And that instils a sense of helplessness. It’s a not a place that I ever want to be.’