Autistic child moving to Australia will they accept British diagnosis for NDIS support

[Natgoesrunning 6]

Hi all, we are planning to move to Melbourne January 2020. My son is on the autistic spectrum and we have full diagnostic report from the UK. Will we need to get another one in Australia to apply for NDIS support? Thanks!!!

 

[VERYSTORMY 3,405]

Have you obtained visas yet?

[Tulip1 4,906]

1 hour ago, Natgoesrunning said:

Hi all, we are planning to move to Melbourne January 2020. My son is on the autistic spectrum and we have full diagnostic report from the UK. Will we need to get another one in Australia to apply for NDIS support? Thanks!!!

 

First of all you need to make sure you can get a visa. Your sons condition may mean you can’t. You need to establish that before anything else 

[Amber Snowball 1,399]

1 hour ago, Natgoesrunning said:

Hi all, we are planning to move to Melbourne January 2020. My son is on the autistic spectrum and we have full diagnostic report from the UK. Will we need to get another one in Australia to apply for NDIS support? Thanks!!!

 

I would say take all your reports with you, they will help but NDIS will do it’s own assessment. It is still relatively new and not sure the process is very good. Known a few go through it and they have struggled to get the amount of funding needed. It may have improved......

[Natgoesrunning 6]

He has his Australian Citizenship by descent, lucky we don't need to get a visa! Just waiting for my husband's Spouse visa.

[Quoll 6,241]

https://www.ndis.gov.au/about-us/operational-guidelines/access-ndis-table-contents/access-ndis-determining-whether

Get all assessments updated - cognitive functioning, adaptive behaviour, skill levels, language assessments, physical functionality and ieps. That's going to be a reasonable starting point - be sure that assessments are objective and assessors qualifications are clearly listed. Coming from UK you should be OK but if they need more they will ask you for more or want to make their own assessments.

Its not the smoothest of processes and everyone I know complains about the lack of funding and resources to access. 

Edited February 10, 2019 by Quoll

[bearbear128 0]

Hello Quoll, just wondering do you got an updated link from NDIS as the old link is not effective anymore.

My concern is that whether what kind of support does a child with mild ASD will be eligible to receive if we were granted any non permanent visa ,eg. 482, 491

Cheers

[Toots 12,310]

7 minutes ago, bearbear128 said:

Hello Quoll, just wondering do you got an updated link from NDIS as the old link is not effective anymore.

My concern is that whether what kind of support does a child with mild ASD will be eligible to receive if we were granted any non permanent visa ,eg. 482, 491

Cheers

The NDIS is in a bit of a mess just now.  Can't understand why it has been allowed to get into this state of affairs.  There's always somebody somewhere ripping it off.

I feel sorry for the people who really need NDIS assitance.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-08-15/ndis-disability-taskforce-to-target-organised-crime-fraud/101332668

 

[gaia 23]

This link should work hopefully   https://www.ndis.gov.au/.      But To be eligible for the ndis you have to be either permanent residents or citizens.

[Quoll 6,241]

2 hours ago, bearbear128 said:

Hello Quoll, just wondering do you got an updated link from NDIS as the old link is not effective anymore.

My concern is that whether what kind of support does a child with mild ASD will be eligible to receive if we were granted any non permanent visa ,eg. 482, 491

Cheers

General rule of thumb is that if a child has a disability which is significant enough to attract disability support then they wont get a visa and vice versa, if you get a visa you are unlikely to get any additional support

[Ausvisitor 831]

2 hours ago, Quoll said:

General rule of thumb is that if a child has a disability which is significant enough to attract disability support then they wont get a visa and vice versa, if you get a visa you are unlikely to get any additional support

Which seems fair enough, it's one thing for a country to support their own citizens but an entirely elevated level of altruism to spend money to support someone who is only a guest in the country.

I know it's a tough message, but Australia like any other country has a duty to it's citizens and residents to spend its money wisely and providing NDIS dollars to someone who isn't yet a permanent resident seems too much 

[DrDougster 291]

Imagine what a disaster it would've been for the country to have had someone like Bill Gates or Einstein emigrate to Australia!

[Quoll 6,241]

10 minutes ago, DrDougster said:

Imagine what a disaster it would've been for the country to have had someone like Bill Gates or Einstein emigrate to Australia!

Would they have needed disability support in childhood???

[Ausvisitor 831]

7 hours ago, Quoll said:

Would they have needed disability support in childhood???

Neither did, it's just a populistic statement to win favour with others.

No one is saying that citizens shouldn't get support from their country, they absolutely should, it's when people expect countries that have no obligation to also provide support that it is wrong

[DrDougster 291]

13 hours ago, Quoll said:

Would they have needed disability support in childhood???

Einstein almost certainly would if assessed as a five year old, yes. Absolutely no way he'd have got NDIS though, given my experience of trying to get people support through it! But, not really the point I was trying to make. Immigration policy probably pays to be open minded for a rich and diverse society to develop. Having global talent visas has its place but a policy that excludes people who need a bit of support is probably short sighted.

[Marisawright 10,925]

46 minutes ago, DrDougster said:

Einstein almost certainly would if assessed as a five year old, yes. Absolutely no way he'd have got NDIS though, given my experience of trying to get people support through it! But, not really the point I was trying to make. Immigration policy probably pays to be open minded for a rich and diverse society to develop. Having global talent visas has its place but a policy that excludes people who need a bit of support is probably short sighted.

You say it  yourself:  Einstein would have been assessed as high-functioning autistic and therefore not requiring long-term disability support, therefore his parents' visa would likely have been approved. Whether high-functioning autistic children should have long-term support is a different question.

If Australia becomes desperate for migrants then I'm sure there will be a change of attitude.  They'll open the door to more parents and dependents, even infirm ones.  But right now, there are far more people applying for visas than there are places. Given the choice between two equally-qualified doctors, they'll pick the one with the lowest cost burden.  It's a sensible business decision.

 

[BendigoBoy 201]

Of course, back when Einstein was a nipper, there also wouldn't have been a gargantuan welfare state.  So it's really quite academic.

[wrussell 2,292]

The NDIS is in a bit of a mess just now. 

To say the least.

[desreb 37]

On 04/06/2023 at 15:48, bearbear128 said:

Hello Quoll, just wondering do you got an updated link from NDIS as the old link is not effective anymore.

My concern is that whether what kind of support does a child with mild ASD will be eligible to receive if we were granted any non permanent visa ,eg. 482, 491

Cheers

Probably none without PR/Citizenship.

Our 10yo is ASD L1, but Australian born/citizen, and she gets around $5k a year in NDIS funding for a biweekly OT and some supports such as Maths tuition, etc. However, I think this was predominantly for her ADHD diagnosis rather than ASD;   we were encouraged to emphasise the behaviours that required intervention to be ADHD-aligned rather than ASD-aligned, as I don't think they fund ASD treatments, or recognise that interventions are effective and hence should be funded.

This contrasts to the UK, which seems to have more support/funding for ASD than ADHD.  I understand that many families can apply, and/or then sue, their council to pay for their child to attend private school, because they would benefit from the extra attention. I believe that's becoming harder now. No such schemes in NSW, although some mainstream schools do have an special needs unit for kids who can't attend mainstream lessons. I recall we had a range of NHS-run options for ASD support, including play therapy, music therapy, etc.  In NSW these seem to be more clinic/privately run, than state-run services.

In contrast, our 7yo is profoundly deaf with cochlear implants, and gets around $17k a year. This covers weekly speech therapy, an OT, iPad apps, processor spares, swimming lessons (the cost difference between 1:1 and a group), etc. etc. That's on top of the 2 x 1.5hr Teacher of the Deaf attendance at her school, processors, spares, etc.  The continuity support has been excellent.

The other thing to note is that NDIS drops dramatically at age 7, as I believe that's where NDIS sees the return on investment is no longer 'early' intervention. A friend saw his kid's therapy halved at age 7, despite needing as much as they could get their hands on.