Thursday 26th May ⁠& 16th June
9:30am – 11:30am ⁠
Palmerston Library⁠
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*bring any documents or NDIS plans you would like to discuss

Northern Territory Disability Advocates call for action on NDIS Appeals crisis.

Darwin Community Legal Service (DCLS), Disability Advocacy Services (DAS) Alice Springs and NPY Women’s Council (NPYWC) are all NT based organisations that receive funding from the Department of Social Services for NDIS Appeals Advocacy.

NDIS Appeals Advocacy provides specialist support to National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) participants and people seeking access to NDIS supports when appealing decisions made by the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT).

However, the funding our services receive for NDIS Appeals Advocacy is highly inadequate, to the point that none of us now have funding for even one full-time position.

DSS has not correlated funding for NDIS Appeals Advocacy support to NT participant needs, the service areas or the specialist nature of the work.

On top of this DSS has advised that the NDIS Appeals Advocacy funding of $80,000 pa received by DCLS for NT wide assistance, will be reduced by 30% next financial year.

The NDIS Appeals Advocacy funding each of our organisations receives is unresponsive and tokenistic to the NT context and is dismissive of the rights and needs of people with a disability in the NT especially those in remote and very remote settings.

Please read our joint statement regarding the NDIS Appeals Crisis in the NT  that we have sent to NT Disability Minister Worden and federal Ministers Rushton and Reynolds

Darwin Community Legal Service (DCLS) is pleased to see many of its key recommendations reflected in the final report of the Community Affairs References Committee for the Senate Inquiry into the purpose, intent and adequacy of the Disability Support Pension (DSP).

DCLS looks to the Australian government to urgently reform this system to stop the harm it is doing in the NT and elsewhere in Australia.

While many of the Committee’s recommendations should be implemented immediately, the full overhaul  requires consultation with people with disability, Aboriginal and other representative bodies, treating health professionals, disability advocates, community legal centres and many others.

To read more on the Senate Inquiry into the purpose, intent, and adequacy of the Disability Support  Pension or to read Darwin Community Legal Services’ submission, see here:

To read the full report –Disability Support Pension Report