The final details of major changes to the national disability insurance scheme have been announced ending months of uncertainty for participants. From Thursday, certain products and services will no longer be funded by the scheme in the government's bid to save billions of dollars.
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00:00The outgoing Minister makes a long-awaited announcement, outlining the products and services
00:08now covered under major changes to the NDIS.
00:11What we have seen is the rise of opportunistic, unethical providers and they're selling snake
00:19oil, they're selling stuff which frankly doesn't work.
00:22So what's in?
00:23Well, anything directly related to disability like support workers, home modifications or
00:29household tasks.
00:31But gone are things the states should cover like general transport, illegal items like
00:36drugs or treatments that aren't scientifically proven.
00:41We do not pay for spa baths, saunas, steam rooms.
00:45We don't support a range of therapies, tarot cards, clairvoyance, wilderness therapy, cuddle
00:54therapy.
00:55If something isn't on the list, participants can still make a case for it to be included.
01:01But advocates say the community was in the dark for too long.
01:04People with disability have been given less than two days notice for huge changes to the
01:10essential supports that they rely on and that is unfair.
01:13It will be a 12 month transition period where people will be advised if they accidentally
01:18claim the wrong thing but not penalised.
01:21We hope that we are able to make the interactions with the agency simpler and clearer.
01:26The agency that runs the scheme will be keeping a close eye and now with greater powers.
01:32I've heard from participants who have been the victim of fraud.
01:35They want anybody who is in the scheme, who is defrauding the scheme to be rooted out
01:39of the scheme.
01:40The changes follow a review of the $42 billion scheme which has ballooned in recent years.
01:45The government expects these changes to curb the projected spend by $14 billion over four
01:51years.