I have been telling NDIS that our son that attends day services 5 days a week is financially worse off under NDIS because they did not take into account his transport needs. NSID persisted he was getting the correct level of funding but when your transport need jump over 150% how is the client meant to survive on DSP? See the below statement from disbailityservicesconsulting.com.au which shows how 1 persons fight to federal court changed how NDIS MUST think:
Individuals can appeal their own transport budgets to the AAT. Unlike the Agency, the Tribunal follows the Federal Court ruling and does not apply the 3 levels of funding. Instead they evaluate all the regular trips a person makes, in the same way that Planners do for any other support. But it is quite outrageous to expect a person to go through the significant hassle of an AAT hearing in order to receive the right level of support. The responsibility really lies with the Agency to make sure that their policies align with the AAT’s and Federal Court’s interpretation of the law. This is the government after all. We are entitled to expect them to take the law quite seriously. It’s time the Agency took their red pen to their own policies to ensure that all Participants are receiving exactly what they are entitled to, no more and certainly no less.