Jane is deaf and blind and says it is the government that is making her feel helpless
A woman with a disability who cannot see or hear says she feels “helpless” as the government attempts to cut NDIS services crucial to her wellbeing.
Jane Britt, 40, from Brisbane, never felt like her conditions were a disability until she began to access systems like education, employment and health as she got older.
Jane Britt is blind and deaf and concerned about the government's NDIS bill. Jane Britt
“It’s made me much more aware of my disability, of my needs, and where I’m different from people in the community,” she said.
Britt said the support she received from the NDIS – assistive items and technology, occupational therapy, and home accessibility improvements – had been profoundly life-changing and the reason she was able to build a community, study and work.
“Without the NDIS, I believe I’d be quite socially isolated,” she said.
Britt said she is fearful of how the changes could impact her, particularly as her partial vision deteriorates.
“There is already acute grief around this for me of losing my vision, and for me, it’s been compounded by sitting in this situation now, watching my supports be potentially reduced, not of my own making,” she said.
“I’m in a situation that I have no control over.”
The government has agreed to give the Greens an eight-week extension to the inquiry into the NDIS bill currently before parliament in exchange for support on a separate piece of tax legislation.
Labor is seeking to cut $36 billion from the NDIS and reduce the number of participants by 241,000 by 2030.
Under the proposed changes, the assessment process and eligibility requirements would be tightened and community support would be cut to target rorters and make the snowballing program more financially sustainable.
Women With Disabilities chief executive Sophie Cusworth said women will be the most vulnerable as they already face barriers to being diagnosed and accepted into the scheme.
“Women with disability will face some of the highest risk and some of the greatest disadvantage under this bill,” she said.
“It risks creating what we’re calling a pay-to-prove system, where people face even more barriers to proving their eligibility, including financial barriers.”
Women With Disabilities chief executive Sophie Cusworth believes women will be most affected by the proposed NDIS changes. Women with Disabilities
Cusworth added that women form majority of unpaid carers and will be forced to pick up the needs no longer supported under the proposed changes to the NDIS.
The Greens are fighting the changes and while the Coalition is backing cuts to the NDIS budget, it wants to strike a balance with ensuring participants remain supported.
Shadow NDIS minister Melissa McIntosh told the ABC on Friday the concerns aired from the disability community that some people will die from these changes are legitimate.
“Just this week, I had a case come through my office where, sadly, a gentleman tried to take his own life because he had his plans cut and he and his wife are basically scared and she can’t look after him anymore,” she said.
Greens Senator Jordon Steele-John, who lives with cerebral palsy, also told his colleagues in the Senate on Monday that people will die if the bill is passed.
NDIS Minister Mark Butler has ruled out bending on any of the proposed changes.
Earlier this week, he rejected the characterisation that he was pushing through the reform because he did not believe that they would die or be isolated with these changes.
“We’ve obviously designed these reforms very carefully,” he said on Tuesday.
“I get that these are big and confronting changes for participants and a lot of the evidence has reflected that degree of anxiety that I always expected would be there within the disability community.
NDIS Minister Mark Butler is refusing to budge on his proposed changes. The Sydney Morning Herald
“Our job is to reassure those participants, their families and others who care deeply about this scheme that this is necessary reform. It’s hard reform.”
Britt hopes the eight-week inquiry extension will work through the details in the bill, saying too many lives depend on getting it right.
“We should be the ones leading decision-making. I feel like this is not something that’s been done with us, it’s been done to us,” she said.
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