The National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) is a new way to get disability support. It's the first time you can choose when, where and how you get the support you need.
Before the NDIS, funding for disability support would go to an organisation. You might not have had any choice about which organisation gave you support. You might not have a say in who supported you and how.
After the NDIS, funding for disability support can go to the person with a disability, for them to decide which organisation can give them support. This gives the person with a disability more choice and control.
The NDIS aims to address three big problems in disability services:
- It can be very hard to get the supports that you need. Sometimes they are not available.
- Or, it's not very hard to get the supports you need, but you have to live in a certain area to get them. This can mean that you have to move somewhere else if you can't get the supports you need where you are.
- When you do receive supports, you often don't have a choice about who or where they are from.
When people use the NDIS it will be very different:
- There will be a lot more money, to make sure that everybody gets the support that they need.
- It won't matter where you are in Australia, because the NDIS will be the same in every state and territory.
- People with disabilities will now have choices about things that can help them.
Many people with disabilities are reporting that their lives are improving as a result of having the NDIS.
Related pages:
How can I get help from the NDIS?
How does the Planning process work?