Pre Budget Submission (2022)

Pre Budget Submission (2022)

Tags: hospital discharge, housing, NDIS

Description:

More than 50 young people continue to enter aged care each month. Most young people enter aged care via hospital -they fall through the gap between the hospital and the disability sectors.
 
Additionally over 1,100 long stay NDIS participants are stuck in Australian hospitals at a cost of $860m per annum. People with disability remain in hospital for months after they are clinically ready for discharge because it takes the NDIA an average of 60 days to determine eligibility and allocate funding for supports in an NDIS plan. Funding for SDA can take much longer.
 
Many NDIS participants have to go to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) to get the right SDA determination. This can take up to another year, costing the Federal Government $17 million per annum (reported by the NDIA) and causing undue stress to NDIS participants and their families.
 
Lack of disability housing is not the main barrier to hospital discharge. According to the NDIA, there are 3,000 vacancies in disability housing across Australia, 800 of which are new build SDA.
 
In 2016, the NDIS committed to providing $700 million per year to housing payments called SDA. Last year the NDIA only allocated 31% of the committed $700 million for SDA (the partial allocation of committed funding also occurred in prior years).
The Federal Government will not achieve its 2022 or 2025 YPIRAC Targets unless:
 

• The NDIA steps up and matches the efficiency of the aged care system in the timely allocation of funding for housing and support, post receipt of all required evidence to make an SDA determination.
• There is investment in better hospital discharge for people with severe disability