DAN JERVIS-BARDY: The problems with the NDIS go well beyond waste and rorts

The National Disability Insurance Scheme is in trouble.

Costs are spiralling out of control and participant numbers have exploded beyond all estimates.

Criminals and unscrupulous providers have infiltrated the $42 billion-per-year program, exploiting gaping holes in regulation to enrich themselves at the expense of taxpayers and, more importantly, some of society’s most vulnerable and marginalised.

There are stories of illicit drugs being bought and sold using NDIS funds.

In this context, the Federal Government has little choice but to intervene.

NDIS Minister Bill Shorten has for months been fighting to win support to start overhauling a scheme he helped design, including measures to contain participant spending.

A first tranche of legislation could finally pass this week with the support of the Coalition, despite opposition from the disability sector.

But “getting the scheme back on track” — as Mr Shorten’s Bill is titled — requires more than eliminating overspending and eradicating obvious waste and rorts.

For many of the scheme’s 650,000 participants and those who support them, the NDIS is far from the taxpayer-funded gravy train it has been painted out to be.

For many, the experience is a never-ending struggle with a labyrinthine bureaucracy in which securing even basic — sometimes life-saving support — is a battle.

The Sunday Times this week reported on the case of Josh, a 24-year-old disabled man whose application for 24/7 care was rejected by the NDIS six weeks before his tragic death last year inside the Perth underground.

His grieving mother’s account of dealing with the scheme, and her haunting conclusion that “that they failed him”, would have resonated with participants and families across Australia.

They know the scheme’s problems go well beyond waste and rorts.