NDIS: Eligibility, Budget, and Implementation of the Insurance Scheme

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) in Australia. It begins with a conceptual understanding of the scheme, outlining its objectives, principles, and the government's role in funding and implementation. The report details the eligibility criteria, access areas, and the types of support offered, including personal care, therapies, and assistive devices. It examines the budget, staffing, and the scheme's evolution from the National Disability Agreement (NDA). The report also discusses the NDIS's aim to promote community participation and independence for people with disabilities, highlighting the social reform aspect and the shift from traditional service providers. The conclusion emphasizes the scheme's sustainable approach towards improving the lives of those in need. The report also includes references to relevant literature and a personal reflection on the NDIS.

Running head: NATIONAL DISABILITY INSURANCE SCHEME
NATIONAL DISABILITY INSURANCE SCHEME
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

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Conceptual Understanding:
The National Disability Insurance Scheme refers to the costs that are funded by the
Government. This special scheme is prevalent in Australia. As per the National Disability
Scheme (NDIS), the government will help the disabled person, the family of such a person as
well as the carer of the person. The bill for the act was initiated and pass in 2013, however, it
took three years for the company to include and implement the bill into the socio- political
and economic structure of the country (Green, & Mears, 2014). The government of the
country is also joined with the territorial governments for the funding. The aim of the bill is
to help, around 46,000 Australians, who are physically and mentally challenged.
Therefore, it is important to understand the meaning of the insurance scheme. As per the
chairman of NDIS, this is a welfare approach and initiative taken or included by the
government of the country. As per the committee, the initiative is panning for inclusion of the
funding strategy as an annual structure. This is a five year plan, as according to the committee
of NDIS. However, as per the chairman, of National Disability Insurance Agency, Bruce
Bonyhady, the funding structure and the whole process will be depending upon or will be
influenced by certain factors, for example, the tax revenue of the country, the economic
conditioning of the country and other expenditure or economic portfolios of the country. The
chairman has further mentioned that the costs, that are to be provided by the government, will
be depending upon the future costs that will be calculated by the governing body and
therefore, of those who re insured (.Whitburn, Moss, & O’Mara,, 2017) The government is
planning on to make short investments, in order to make sure the challenging people can be
independent and participate in the community life, and with the increasing participation of the
people into the community life, the expenditure, upon them, made by the government will be
ensured.

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Objectives and Principles:
Therefore, the objectives and the principles that the government of the country has included
regarding this must be analysed, and these include the followings,
 Providing the necessary supports to the disabled people, and also including the
invention supports to the disabled people.
 Providing the disabled people with opportunities, choices and controls to induce a
sense of independence among them.
 Encouraging the people to participate in the community and economic life
(Taliadoros,, 2013).
 Promoting the needs and the innovative supports for the people with disability, and
also finding and facilitating support and funding for the people with disability.
 According to the members of the committee, this particular approach calls for a
detailed goal planning structure and an understanding of the limitations of this
approach.
Accessing Areas:
Therefore, as per the committee members, this particular provision can be accessed,
currently, at certain major cities, for example, it will be available in the Queensland,
Tasmania, Western Australia, Victoria, New South Wales, Northern Territory, Australian
Capital Territory and in South Australia.
Eligibility Criteria:
The NDIS has also certain eligibility criteria, as they will be providing the services and
the funding for the people who are in need of reasonable and necessary supports. Therefore,

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the have given the following list if criteria, who can apply for the funding and the supports.
Therefore, the criteria are,
 People in need of personal care, for example, to get out of bed and showering,
managing money, for conducting the domestic activities.
 Help with the transportation, to stay in touch with the community people.
 Socio- psychological therapies and speech therapy.
 Helping the people who are involved with hearing aids and wheelchairs (Collings,
Dew, & Dowse, 2016).
The NDIS is looking forward to provide help and fund for the people needing assistance.
This plan also aims to discard the continuity of the traditional service providers who often,
involve into discrepancies in providing the services. Therefore, this is believed that there will
be increased competition in the market.
There are certain other criteria that one must fulfil in order to access all the facilities that
re provided by the NDIS. These include,
o The disease that one is suffering from is permanent and it is being a difficulty for the
person to get involved into all the daily activities.
o The person has to the citizen of the country and the person must be ageing less than
65 years, during the time of accessing the schemes.
o Citizen of New Zealand can also access the schemes, if the person holds the protected
special category visa.
o Also, the person must live in an area, here the services of NDIS is available (Wiesel,
& Habibis, 2015).

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The National disability Insurance is one of the most important social schemes and
social reform, in the history of Australian Polity. The country has always considered the
people of the country, to be the driving agent of their social policies and their political
agendas (Mavromaras et al., 2018). The country is extremely power driven and polity
oriented, but when it comes about the wellness factors of the people, the country has always
seen to have prioritized that.
Budget and Staffing:
However, the implementation of the plan was much difficult, as the budget of the
scheme was extremely high. In the first budget, the Federal Government of the country had
shown that the approximate expense will be around $15 billion a year, however the revised
budget of 2018 had revealed that the expense is likely to be much higher, and around, $22
billion a year. Therefore the federal government of the country had asked all the states to
come forward and join in the funding process for the NDIS, and New South Wales was nth
first state to agree to that. The minister of the Disability Reform, has mentioned that the
budget is likely to get increased (Kelly, & Sheehan,, 2014). Therefore, the drafting
committee, had criticised the planning to be more perceptive, and lacking the flexibility upon
the approach and the budget. Therefore, with the joining of the states to the cause and thee
implementation of the supporting system, it can be said that the government of the country, is
indeed including a flexible approach towards the inclusion of the planning and the scheme
into the governmental process. Also, the commission has upheld the areas, where the NDIS
will not provide any funding or support. First, the NDIS will not be encouraging or funding
the responsibilities, which are the responsibility of another government, or community.
Second, the NDIS services are not to be considered as the related to person’s disability only,
rather is a community service (Dickinson, Needham, & Sullivan, 2014). Third factor is that
the funding system will not be supporting an act which can harm or pose risk, both, directly

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or indirectly to others. Lastly, the services or the funding that will be provided are not related
to the daily living expense of the individual, rather the scheme is aiming to provide support
and service for the disabled population, in their need based and related areas (Dickinson,
Needham, & Sullivan, 2014).
In this regard, it is also important to mention about the staffing that has been planned by the
government. The government is likely to involve and include the consultants and the
contractors, on whom the NDIA, has been investing for a long time. Also, the staffing will be
distributed accordingly, as it could be found that the dispersion of the disabled population
uneven across the country, therefore, the organization, NDIA, is also including a dispersed
approach for the employment of the staff, and the places, where the population of challenged
people is more, will likely to have more staff members (Macdonald, & Charlesworth, 2016).
The NDIS is basically relacing the body in practice, National Disability Agreement
(NDA), which has the objective of providing employment to the disabled people. The NDA,
works conjointly with the territorial and the state governments and ensure the community
support and access, the accommodation support, the advocacy to the disabled people and the
respite care to the people with disability. However, the aim of the replacement, as per the
Productivity Commission of Australia is that, the NDIS is aiming to provide a high quality,
long term and full funded care and support system to all the disabled population of the
country.
Conclusion:
The NDIS, therefore, have a sustainable approach towards the wellness and the
betterment of the people of the country, who are in need. The aim is to better the community
life and to support those who are in need. Though the quality and control management, that is
to be taken care of by the organizational body, must be provided care and attention.

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Reflection:
The above reading, states, according to me, the NDIS approach taken by the country
has sustainable approach and the planning that have been done by the federal and the state
government bodies and the personnel and the NDA, are much well crafted, well planned, well
thought and documented, and the implementation process, that has been done or taken by the
organizational body and the government had been analysed. Also, the accessing process and
the availability of the staff are more and effective than the NDA, in the National Disability
Insurance Scheme.

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Reference:
Collings, S., Dew, A., & Dowse, L. (2016). Support planning with people with intellectual
disability and complex support needs in the Australian National Disability Insurance
Scheme. Journal of Intellectual & Developmental Disability, 41(3), 272-276.
Dickinson, H., Needham, C., & Sullivan, H. (2014). Individual funding for disability support:
what are the implications for accountability?. Australian Journal of Public
Administration, 73(4), 417-425.
Green, J., & Mears, J. (2014). The implementation of the NDIS: Who wins, who
loses?. Cosmopolitan Civil Societies: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 6(2), 25-39.
Kelly, S., & Sheehan, M. (2014). What is a reasonable and necessary support to live in safe,
appropriate affordable housing?. Parity, 27(5), 33.
Macdonald, F., & Charlesworth, S. (2016). Cash for care under the NDIS: Shaping care
workers’ working conditions?. Journal of Industrial Relations, 58(5), 627-646.
Mavromaras, K., Moskos, M., Mahuteau, S., Isherwood, L., Goode, A., Walton, H., ... &
Flavel, J. (2018). Evaluation of the NDIS. Final report. Adelaide: National Institute
of Labour Studies, Flinders University.
Whitburn, B., Moss, J., & O’Mara, J. (2017). The policy problem: the National Disability
Insurance Scheme (NDIS) and implications for access to education. Journal of
Education Policy, 32(4), 467-479.

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Wiesel, I., & Habibis, D. (2015). NDIS, housing assistance and choice and control for people
with disability. AHURI Final Report, 258, 1-48.