News location:

Canberra Today 11°/16° | Saturday, April 27, 2024 | Digital Edition | Crossword & Sudoku

Green light for disability insurance scheme

CHIEF Minister Katy Gallagher joined Prime Minister Julia Gillard to sign an historic agreement today which will see full implementation of the National Disability Insurance Scheme in the ACT.

The ACT is already a launch site for the scheme, supporting around 5,000 Canberrans and starting in July 2014. The launch will see full rollout achieved by 2016 – 17.

The scheme will extend support to people with disabilities and their families, allowing them to better access funds to meet the cost of a range of needs relating to their disability.

“The agreement reached today provides certainty to all those living with a disability and to those who care for them. It will ensure the support of the longer term delivery and funding arrangements under the scheme,” Ms Gallagher said.

“Through the NDIS the ACT and Commonwealth Governments will be supporting the needs of all ACT residents with a disability and focused on improving the capacity of the community sector to deliver services under the scheme.”

Who can be trusted?

In a world of spin and confusion, there’s never been a more important time to support independent journalism in Canberra.

If you trust our work online and want to enforce the power of independent voices, I invite you to make a small contribution.

Every dollar of support is invested back into our journalism to help keep citynews.com.au strong and free.

Become a supporter

Thank you,

Ian Meikle, editor

Share this

2 Responses to Green light for disability insurance scheme

Justine Calvert says: 20 April 2013 at 9:13 am

But does it still exclude people over the age of 65??

Reply
Stephen Easton says: 23 April 2013 at 5:22 pm

Hi Justine,

The federal government recently amended the NDIS Bill to make sure that people can definitely stay with the disability support system after they turn 65. This does not mean older people with disabilities are not entitled to aged care, either. They will be able to choose to stay with disability support or claim aged care entitlements.

Here is a statement about this from the federal Minister for Disability Reform: http://jennymacklin.fahcsia.gov.au/node/2270

Thanks for reading.

– Stephen Easton

Reply

Leave a Reply

Related Posts

Follow us on Instagram @canberracitynews