From Every Australian Counts (I encourage you to follow their page!)

New NDIS Minister Linda Reynolds has announced she will pause plans for NDIS compulsory assessments. The Minister said she will "not be making any decisions in terms of legislation to enact independent assessments until the trial is finished and we’ve had a good opportunity to examine the feedback.”

"Senator Reynolds said the ­assessments…were still being considered but would have to wait until the end of trials and after nationwide consultations."

Thank you! Thousands of people with disability, their families, and supporters have acted on this - and it IS making a difference.
The fight is not over - but today is a step in the right direction.

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The article in The Australian is behind a paywall. We have copied and pasted the text below. If you have a subscription to The Australian, you can read it at https://www.theaustralian.com.au/.../896526461391d721c5e5...NDIS revamp put on the back-burner.

EXCLUSIVE
STEPHEN LUNN
SOCIAL AFFAIRS EDITOR
New Government Services Minister Linda Reynolds will shelve plans to roll out mandatory ­assessments for those on the National Disability Insurance Scheme, putting on hold efforts to rein in spiralling costs by forcing participants to justify their funding arrangements.

Senator Reynolds said the ­assessments, which the government argues would ensure better resourced participants are not unfairly accessing more funding, were still being considered but would have to wait until the end of trials and after nationwide consultations.

“I will not be making any decisions in terms of legislation to enact independent assessments until the trial is finished and we’ve had a good opportunity to examine the feedback,” Senator Reynolds told The Australian on Wednesday, ahead of a meeting of federal and state ministers.

“There has been significant feedback already. And as a new minister, I’ll be consulting around the country with as many stakeholders as I can,” she said.
“Once I’ve received that feedback and the trial has con­cluded and we can assess the feedback of the trial, it is then a matter of making sure we have the best process (for assessment of ­eligibility), one that is fair and equitable and has appeal mechanisms.”

With the NDIS website noting the results of the current pilot trial would be made available “later this year”, the proposed laws may now be off the table for some months.
The government, under former minister Stuart Robert, was working on major changes to the $23bn a year insurance scheme in a bid to rein in escalating costs.

These included removing funding from participants who did not have their funding ­arrangements independently ­assessed, a change expected to be rolled out later this year.
The NDIS gives 430,000 people with various levels of disability access to funding — at levels based on advice submitted by medical specialists — for care.

Mr Robert, now the Employment Minister, said the system was inconsistent and favoured those with the means to submit comprehensive applications backed by numerous health professionals.
Disability advocates are concerned the independent assessments — a standardised three-hour consultation similar to other programs, including the Disability Support Payment — would not cater for individual differences.
They also see them as a ploy by the government to cut entitlements to save money.

Despite the NDIS being half-funded by the states, it is a growing budget headache for the Morrison government.
Documents leaked from the National Disability Insurance Agency show the cost of the scheme, which began in 2013, has grown by 23 per cent annually over the past two years.

Under the funding­ ­arrange­ments, state and territory contributions are capped at a 4 per cent annual increase.
Eligible participant numbers are expected to grow from 430,000 to 530,000 by June 2023.
The leaked documents also reveal the NDIA had quietly established a new taskforce charged with bringing costs under control after an “overrun” in the past two years.

The scheme’s Sustainability Action Taskforce would seek to “slow growth in participant numbers (and) slow growth in spend per participant,” it said.
Opposition NDIS spokesman Bill Shorten said the documents revealed a “secret plan to slash services to Australians with a ­disability”.
“The NDIS is a right, not a ­ration. Yet what we have seen in the past eight years is that the ­Coalition is hell-bent on secretly slashing it at every possible ­opportunity,” Mr Shorten said.
Senator Reynolds said her decision to put the new assessment system and legislation on hold did not change the government’s underlying premise that the NDIS had to be affordable.
“It’s clear to me that the initial actuaries and assumptions that it was established on in terms of numbers and participants and cost of packages was underestimated … and as we’ve developed the scheme … those costs have increased well beyond what we ­initially anticipated,” she said.
“This has never been about denying people the right to enter the scheme or stay in the scheme.
“We have ensured it is fully funded and continue to do so, with increased budgets. But like any organisation, the NDIA and its board has to make sure it continues to improve its governance to make sure it is as fair as we can.”
Senator Reynolds will chair Thursday’s disability reform ministers meeting for the first time after taking on her new role after the recent ministerial reshuffle.