Hi all,
Some of you would have seen the news on Friday that the AAT (Administrative Appeals Tribunal) has been abolished. The AAT is where participants go when they have already had a review of a decision by the NDIS and not been successful, such as trying to access to the Scheme, or when their plan has been cut or a specific item denied. See press release
here.
In addition to this, the NDIS announced (
here) that they are expanding the Independent Expert Review process, which is a new process helping to deal with the backlog of cases that were at the AAT. Cases due to present at the AAT are first reviewed by an independent panel member (who doesn't work for the NDIS), and a recommendation made. The most pleasing part of this process is that many of these Expert Reviewers have lived experience of disability, and have worked in the disability sector for at least 3 years- criteria
here. It's nice to see allied health included on this list!
Speech Pathology Australia will now be advocating for more involvement and transparency in this process, time to shake things up a little....
Happy holidays and hopefully this is a good news story (fingers crossed).
Amy