The Commonwealth and Western Australian governments have agreed to provide additional time for people to transfer from the WA state-based National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) to the nationally delivered NDIS.
Minister for Families and Social Services Paul Fletcher said that as the scheme had rolled out it had become clear that additional time was required to ensure the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) had people and systems in place to provide high-quality planning experiences for people transferring between jurisdictions.
“The NDIS is one of the largest, most significant social and economic reforms in Australian history,” he said.
“This extension will allow WA's state-based NDIS participants to be appropriately supported by the NDIA and the WA government to transfer to the nationally delivered scheme.”
Mr Fletcher said all current participants in the WA NDIS would be supported to transfer to the nationally delivered NDIS.
“As of 30 November 2018, more than 2,700 of WA's state-based NDIS participants have transferred to the nationally delivered NDIS and have a funded plan in place,” he said.
“A further 4,600 WA NDIS participants have been found eligible for the nationally delivered scheme and many of these people have had their individual planning conversations.
“For people who have their plan directly transferred to the nationally delivered NDIS, the type of support and the hours of support will be maintained even though the format of the plan may look different.”
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Disability Services Minister Stephen Dawson said it had become apparent the December 31, 2018 timeline for transfer of all existing WA NDIS participants was not achievable and a new target date had been negotiated.
“The state government remains committed to working closely with the Commonwealth to ensure the NDIS rollout meets the expectations of Western Australians with disability and their families as well as service providers," he said.
“Western Australians living with disability will continue to be supported and will not be disadvantaged by this delay.”
Eligible Western Australians who are currently receiving disability services from other WA government or Commonwealth programs are also being progressively transitioned into the nationally delivered NDIS.
The NDIS has been rolling out progressively across Australia and the nationally delivered scheme formally began its rollout in WA on July 1, 2018.
For more information about the nationally delivered NDIS in WA or the transfer process, visit the WA NDIS website.
