Federal election promise from Coalition includes quicker NDIS assessments and longer plans

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The Coalition is promising significant changes to the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), giving participants more certainty over their plans and forcing the troubled agency to make decisions more quickly.

Key points: Midway through the election campaign, radical changes to the NDIS have been announced by the Coalition

Parties have argued about funding for the scheme for more than six years

The head of the agency in charge resigned on Tuesday after just two years in the role

The changes will go some way towards addressing long-held concerns of people with disabilities — and their families — who often feel as though they are trapped in an endless cycle of paperwork and dealing with a bureaucracy that does not work for them.

Under the changes, announced by Social Services Minister Paul Fletcher, every participant will be given a "single point of contact" within the NDIS and those with "stable conditions" will have their plans locked in for three years, meaning they will not be forced to have a review every 12 months.

And from 2020, the Coalition is promising legislation that will force the NDIS to make decisions on plans, reviews and eligibility within shorter timeframes.

"[It's] a whole series of measures to improve the rollout of the NDIS, particularly the participant experience," Mr Fletcher said.

The $22 billion scheme has been plagued by problems since the roll-out began in 2016, with the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) receiving about 1,000 complaints each month.

The most common frustration is the timeliness of decisions, with some people being forced to wait up to nine months for their bungled plans to be reviewed.

Others have had their level of support and funding changed without their knowledge, or outside the regular 12-month timeframe.

Critics have blamed the overly ambitious roll-out timetable for the issues, together with staffing caps at the NDIA which, they say, have hampered the agency's ability to effectively manage people's plans.

Disability on election radar

Federal Labor has already promised to remove that staffing cap, if elected, and bring out-sourced services (including labour hire) back into the agency.

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It has sharpened its attack on the Coalition's management of the scheme after this year's budget revealed a $1.6 billion underspend on the NDIS in 2018/19.

Whoever is elected, the NDIA is set for a shake-up after chief executive Robert De Luca announced his shock resignation on Tuesday, just two years into the role.

Mr Fletcher has played down the significance of Mr De Luca's departure.

"People change jobs from time to time, there's nothing unusual about that," he said.

"There was an interim chief executive appointed and it's not going to affect the roll-out of the NDIS."

More than 240,000 Australians are now covered by the NDIS, with that number expected to reach 460,000 within the next couple of years.

Topics: government-and-politics, disabilities, federal-elections, australia