Post by JJJ88 on May 19, 2023 11:15:27 GMT 7
NDIS participants 'kidnapped' and financially abused in boarding homes for people with disability, report finds
Bill Shorten says some people with lucrative NDIS packages have effectively been "human trafficked".
People with high-value National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) plans are being "kidnapped" and having their funding drained by providers that are supposed to help them live better lives, a bombshell report says.
Key points:
A report says people living with disability have been abused and exploited in multiple Victorian boarding houses
NDIS participants have been bribed with food and cigarettes and had funds stolen from them, the report says
Bill Shorten says he expects the issue is a national problem
The draft report also says people with disability who live in supported residential services (SRS) in Victoria are being "coaxed" into changing accommodation and service providers "through offers of fast-food 'treats' like KFC and McDonalds".
The government-commissioned report was produced by the Melbourne-based Mental Health Legal Centre (MHLC).
It found people with disability in Victorian SRSs – historically known as boarding houses – have been financially abused, neglected and manipulated by providers.
"Currently companies can collect residents, take them to undisclosed locations and siphon the funding from their packages," it says.
NDIS Minister Bill Shorten said the report came about after meetings with whistleblowers, and he suspected similar abuses were happening across the country.
"The NDIS is here to stay. It's changing people's lives," he told reporters in Melbourne.
"But there is no doubt that in the last number of years, the neglect and oversight of the system has seen vulnerable people with lucrative support packages fall through the cracks, and effectively be human trafficked."
Mr Shorten said the federal government was referring some providers to the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA), which runs the NDIS, as well as its Quality and Safeguards Commission and the Fraud Fusion Taskforce.
People with disability treated as 'human cargo for money'
SRSs are privately run operations that provide supported accommodation to older people and those living with disability.
Of the 4,000 people living in SRSs across Victoria, an estimated 1,600 are NDIS participants. The majority live with psychosocial and intellectual disabilities.
MHLC general manager Charlotte Jones said she was aware of around 70 people having being "kidnapped" across the SRS system.
"As a number of SRS facilities were closed, residents either disappeared … or were taken from facilities, often at night, and deposited into alternative accommodation," she said.
"Some have ended up in hospital, some were back at the SRS, and some have ended up back at other SRSs.
"We don't believe that they go understanding where they're going."
The report's findings include:
Bill Shorten says some people with lucrative NDIS packages have effectively been "human trafficked".
People with high-value National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) plans are being "kidnapped" and having their funding drained by providers that are supposed to help them live better lives, a bombshell report says.
Key points:
A report says people living with disability have been abused and exploited in multiple Victorian boarding houses
NDIS participants have been bribed with food and cigarettes and had funds stolen from them, the report says
Bill Shorten says he expects the issue is a national problem
The draft report also says people with disability who live in supported residential services (SRS) in Victoria are being "coaxed" into changing accommodation and service providers "through offers of fast-food 'treats' like KFC and McDonalds".
The government-commissioned report was produced by the Melbourne-based Mental Health Legal Centre (MHLC).
It found people with disability in Victorian SRSs – historically known as boarding houses – have been financially abused, neglected and manipulated by providers.
"Currently companies can collect residents, take them to undisclosed locations and siphon the funding from their packages," it says.
NDIS Minister Bill Shorten said the report came about after meetings with whistleblowers, and he suspected similar abuses were happening across the country.
"The NDIS is here to stay. It's changing people's lives," he told reporters in Melbourne.
"But there is no doubt that in the last number of years, the neglect and oversight of the system has seen vulnerable people with lucrative support packages fall through the cracks, and effectively be human trafficked."
Mr Shorten said the federal government was referring some providers to the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA), which runs the NDIS, as well as its Quality and Safeguards Commission and the Fraud Fusion Taskforce.
People with disability treated as 'human cargo for money'
SRSs are privately run operations that provide supported accommodation to older people and those living with disability.
Of the 4,000 people living in SRSs across Victoria, an estimated 1,600 are NDIS participants. The majority live with psychosocial and intellectual disabilities.
MHLC general manager Charlotte Jones said she was aware of around 70 people having being "kidnapped" across the SRS system.
"As a number of SRS facilities were closed, residents either disappeared … or were taken from facilities, often at night, and deposited into alternative accommodation," she said.
"Some have ended up in hospital, some were back at the SRS, and some have ended up back at other SRSs.
"We don't believe that they go understanding where they're going."
The report's findings include:
People with complex needs and limited family support "have become a target" for unscrupulous providers — "they have become a … valuable and disposable commodity"
Illegitimate and "vaguely worded" invoices are being used to "bump up income revenue for accommodation providers"
There is a "growing trend of predatory companies utilising Supported Independent Living (SIL) resources to increase their income revenue", including some that "collect residents, take them to undisclosed locations and siphon the funding from their packages"
Both registered and unregistered NDIS providers are "draining vulnerable NDIS participants' packages" with insufficient safeguards — "we have evidence of blind people 'signing forms' and illiterate people 'composing and sending emails'"
Fast food and cigarettes are used to bribe residents to change providers, or make them feel "like they have colluded with overcharging for services" so they don't complain
Inappropriate, uncomfortable and unsafe accommodation is being provided at some SRSs, without proper monitoring — "we have reports of wheelchair users being left in rooms that cannot accommodate their chair restricting all freedom of movement, including exiting their room"
Some accommodation providers are holding residents' bank cards on the guise of protecting them from financial exploitation — "we have reports of funds being withdrawn unauthorised from resident accounts".
Ms Jones said she was shocked by the report's findings.
Warning: The following story contains details and images some readers may find distressing.
Shocking supported living stories
The daughter of a woman who lay dead for more than two hours on the ground of a supported residential service calls for changes to the system that "failed" her mother.
Read more:- www.abc.net.au/news/2022-09-03/disability-royal-commission-on-victoria-supported-residentials/101396120
"I couldn't actually understand that people saw other people as human cargo for money," she said.
The report says there is "a strong profit motive to work with people living with disability without the necessary regulation to ensure protection from predatory business practices".
"‘Choice and control’ for people living with psychosocial disabilities in [SRSs] is only theoretical," it says.
"The current system enables, and in many cases facilitates and financially rewards, exploitative and coercive practices.l
"These practices include limiting access to supports, neglect, emotional manipulation, bribery, financial abuse and kidnapping."
Ms Jones said she believed there would be "many more" people living in SRSs that were being exploited "we don't know about yet".
"Most people have them in their neighbourhoods … but people just don't see the residents," she said.
"And then it's really easy for them to be gone, and nobody's asking any questions."
www.abc.net.au/news/2023-05-19/ndis-abuse-in-boarding-homes-revealed-in-mental-health-report/102368182
Ms Jones said she was shocked by the report's findings.
Warning: The following story contains details and images some readers may find distressing.
Shocking supported living stories
The daughter of a woman who lay dead for more than two hours on the ground of a supported residential service calls for changes to the system that "failed" her mother.
Read more:- www.abc.net.au/news/2022-09-03/disability-royal-commission-on-victoria-supported-residentials/101396120
"I couldn't actually understand that people saw other people as human cargo for money," she said.
The report says there is "a strong profit motive to work with people living with disability without the necessary regulation to ensure protection from predatory business practices".
"‘Choice and control’ for people living with psychosocial disabilities in [SRSs] is only theoretical," it says.
"The current system enables, and in many cases facilitates and financially rewards, exploitative and coercive practices.l
"These practices include limiting access to supports, neglect, emotional manipulation, bribery, financial abuse and kidnapping."
Ms Jones said she believed there would be "many more" people living in SRSs that were being exploited "we don't know about yet".
"Most people have them in their neighbourhoods … but people just don't see the residents," she said.
"And then it's really easy for them to be gone, and nobody's asking any questions."
www.abc.net.au/news/2023-05-19/ndis-abuse-in-boarding-homes-revealed-in-mental-health-report/102368182
we're alledgedly a rich first world Christian country abiding by the rule of law and the aforementioned dogmatic principles. Geezus would be overturning tables and kickin' people out of the higher places...... as a people, we should be too; imho. 🐻
