The number one principle of NDIS is to give people rights, entitlement-based services and equipment. The second most important principle, is choice of services and equipment through personal control of funding – individualised funding - “Individualised Service Package (ISP)”.

This is a real sea-change compared to the present charity hand-out, where people, already disadvantaged, have to beg, crawl and lick state government bureaucratic boots to get a few crumbs, if they are lucky. And they must always be eternally grateful to big bureaucratic brother for whatever they get or don’t get, and never, ever, complain.

Nevertheless, despite the potential sea-change if state government bureaucrats don’t try to devise a means of retaining their present power-over-people, power base, there is a potential down-side of the ISP process.

With state governments handing-out a few ISPs over the years since families pressed for an extension of “Futures Funding”, there has been a rise in “Bad-Debts”. This is service providers not being paid for services provided within the ISP funding. There has always been a problem of living expenses not being paid to group home service providers from the person’s DSP.

Service providers in Victoria, especially, are experiencing non-payment or delayed payment of funds for transport, day activity, respite and support services, where payments are due through a financial intermediary or direct.

Service providers in Victoria report having to write-off thousands of dollars of bad debt every year. This must equal lower level and quality of service overall, and is not the intention of ISPs.