Starting NDIS application before arriving

[desreb]

Does anyone know whether it’s possible to start applying for NDIS before living in the country.

 

We’re Australian citizens living abroad for the last 18 months, and our DD was attending RIDBC on Better start before we moved away. She’s also born and bred Aussie.

 

Now that we’re away, we don’t have a residential address there any more, and intend to live in another suburb when we return.

 

We have mail redirection to a friends’ house from our last place. I think we can also still make 100pts of ID.

 

I can appreciate that the process will be very dependant on residence and our suburb of residence, but I’m wondering if there’s any way we can get a head start on the process before we leave, given it takes so long, and we’ll otherwise be without NDIS support until months after we arrive.

[Eera]

My brother is on the NDIS, and while I can't comment on starting the application from overseas (though there's nothing that states that you specifically can't), you do have to have *a lot* of evidence which literally took my mother months to compile, so maybe in order to get a head start, gathering school assessments, Drs certs etc will be a good start, especially if you've been living overseas, as the scheme wanted to see pretty much every aspect of his life relating to his disability since being a small child.

[Amber Snowball]

I would agree with the above in starting to gather evidence. NDIS is still rolling out so not everywhere is on yet. The department in Vic has stopped taking people on to the old state based disability service 6 months prior to NDIS starting in an area. Gap in services anyone????!!!!!

Anyway, we are expecting a bit of a backlog in the assessments once they start due to this.

Will depend where you are headed to as to where they are at in the roll out and how the individual states are managing the transition.

They seem to be promising good levels of funding once you are on which is good. The original trial in Geelong was a mess, so I hope they have refined it a bit since then.

All the best.

[desreb]

Thanks all! It’s good to hear that we can continue accessing Betterstart - I’ll have to check there’s no issues with getting back into it.

[Guest The Pom Queen]

I’m on the NDIS and what I will say is “Good luck” because you are going to need it. Paraplegics being refused, Down syndromes being refused. There are so many people being knocked back as they class a lot as medical rather than a disability. If you need any help with the application give me a shout. 

NDIS as not rolled out in every area yet so the chances are you may move to an area where it isn’t available. I also know a lot who refuse to jump the hurdles and have given in. Thankfully my specialists, nurses, GP kept calling asking why my application hadn’t been completed, for others it’s been 12 months. 

‘What you have is people who aren’t trained in the medical field saying a person isn’t disabled enough for help or support. The stupid thing is there is no consistency either, so you can have the same condition as someone else and one application is approved the other is refused.

Oh and don’t get me started on home mods or any assistive technology arrgghhhh 

[Guest The Pom Queen]

@desreb you will find this very useful in guiding you throughout the process https://www.ndis.gov.au/operational-guideline/overview-sitemap.html

[Amber Snowball]

17 minutes ago, The Pom Queen said:

I’m on the NDIS and what I will say is “Good luck” because you are going to need it. Paraplegics being refused, Down syndromes being refused. There are so many people being knocked back as they class a lot as medical rather than a disability. If you need any help with the application give me a shout. 

NDIS as not rolled out in every area yet so the chances are you may move to an area where it isn’t available. I also know a lot who refuse to jump the hurdles and have given in. Thankfully my specialists, nurses, GP kept calling asking why my application hadn’t been completed, for others it’s been 12 months. 

‘What you have is people who aren’t trained in the medical field saying a person isn’t disabled enough for help or support. The stupid thing is there is no consistency either, so you can have the same condition as someone else and one application is approved the other is refused.

Oh and don’t get me started on home mods or any assistive technology arrgghhhh 

Ok, so no improvement then......sigh?. 

It has meant lots of people being pushed, completely inappropriately, into the aged care sector. The funding for aged home care packages simply cannot meet the needs of this younger group, not to mention taking funding from the elderly. Premature entry to aged care facilities, simply awful for young people.

Currently it looks like the assessments for aged care will be tendered out to be completed by non tertiary trained staff as well, cheaper obviously but a bit short sighted. Hoping they will see sense but not holding my breath.

Sorry, off topic. @desreb all the best, sounds like you’ll need it. 

[Eera]

Wow, my brother was either very lucky to get on it, or the area he lives (Gosford-ish) is well served.  I was talking to a lady who was after the same kind of thing he gets for her daughter - a part time carer to come in a couple of times a week and make sure he doesn't stink and get him out of the house every now and again, and she was turned down. It seems that postcode might be the determining factor!

[Guest The Pom Queen]

6 minutes ago, Eera said:

Wow, my brother was either very lucky to get on it, or the area he lives (Gosford-ish) is well served.  I was talking to a lady who was after the same kind of thing he gets for her daughter - a part time carer to come in a couple of times a week and make sure he doesn't stink and get him out of the house every now and again, and she was turned down. It seems that postcode might be the determining factor!

It’s all down to your LAC thankfully I had a good one, but they don’t even come out to assess you these days. A LAC calls you on the phone and asks you questions and as you answer she or he is busy ticking boxes on the computer. If they miss ticking a box or tick the wrong one your claim could be refused.

Lots do appeal the decisions and win, but a lot don’t have the fight to do that. Thankfully your daughter as you by her side @desreb .

It’s like you need a law degree behind you just to get accepted and then when you do finally get in to the scheme it’s what you can claim and what you can’t. Some claim, gym memberships, horse riding, iPads etc and have been told it’s acceptable yet another person can be refused stoma bags etc.

Just always make sure that it’s a necessity and not a need and you will be fine. There was an argument in our support group that NDIS should pay for prostitutes, people were torn 50/50, I personally would class it as a need but they all stated it was a necessity so go figure. Again you could call the NDIS up and get a different answer each time. Just make sure you keep copies of everything and if you can record phone calls do (just remember to tell them)

[desreb]

On 3/27/2018 at 11:09, The Pom Queen said:

It’s all down to your LAC thankfully I had a good one, but they don’t even come out to assess you these days. A LAC calls you on the phone and asks you questions and as you answer she or he is busy ticking boxes on the computer. If they miss ticking a box or tick the wrong one your claim could be refused.

Lots do appeal the decisions and win, but a lot don’t have the fight to do that. Thankfully your daughter as you by her side @desreb .

It’s like you need a law degree behind you just to get accepted and then when you do finally get in to the scheme it’s what you can claim and what you can’t. Some claim, gym memberships, horse riding, iPads etc and have been told it’s acceptable yet another person can be refused stoma bags etc.

Just always make sure that it’s a necessity and not a need and you will be fine. There was an argument in our support group that NDIS should pay for prostitutes, people were torn 50/50, I personally would class it as a need but they all stated it was a necessity so go figure. Again you could call the NDIS up and get a different answer each time. Just make sure you keep copies of everything and if you can record phone calls do (just remember to tell them)

Thanks a lot for this TPQ!

I've spoken to NDIS and Betterstart, and it seems that since we had Betterstart before we headed to the UK, we can tap into what's left of that again when we return until and if NDIS funding is approved. So this should allow us to apply once we return, and not hurry it too much either since we'll be using betterstart for our EI sessions.

The equivalent in the UK is DLA of course, and we're still not on that, 16 months after returning. There was a 6 month wait period before applying, even for us as UK citizens, which I assume is to mitigate Health tourism. Then we were too busy to do it for a while (we had most NHS care in place by then), then we did apply in February, and now we're waiting for the outcome. We may get it just in time to return to AU :-)