Finally the current govt is getting an idea of the scale of fraud being conducted by individuals.
the former govt, we need to remember, set up the systems by which service providers were paid and it takes time to ensure appropriate payments are made to genuine service providers while removing the providers who are ripping off the system.
It's hard to get a handle on how much money the NDIS loses to overpayments every year.
The new acting commissioner of the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission hassaid it could be between 15 and 20 per cent, or about $8 billion.
Early in June, the NDIA's integrity and fraud chief John Dardo told a Senate estimates committee it was $2 billion.
The latest NDIA annual report found last financial year it was $1.4 billion.
Whatever the amount bleeding from the NDIS, the people the ABC spoke to in Ms Chivell's case said not enough was being done to stop it.
The ABC has been told TnC Care was first reported to the NDIA for making suspicious claims in 2020.
abc link.
the linked report gives an excel overview of one particular case which demonstrates the difficulty of identifying the fraud.
note the despite the rhetoric around the NDIS, it provides excellent services to people who've had restrictions on how people live their lives and enabling people to be more like we fortunate non-disabled people.
it is the result of removing the State/territory schemes which were often complained of as difficult to be included, to negotiate services and which often left people with little more than physiotherapy and a few aids. this old system sought to maintain levels of ability/disability with little hope of improvement, while the NDIS system aims at giving people the opportunity to live more freely and develop new skills.
it also enables people to find work, earn money, to pay taxes and to contribute to the community.
but the opportunities to defraud the system are the problem that the former govt enabled.
