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Legislative Council - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2012-04-04 Daily Xml
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Question Time

DISABILITY SERVICES, SELF-MANAGED FUNDING

The Hon. K.L. VINCENT (15:13): I have a supplementary question. Can the minister expand on the definition, I suppose, of 'self-managed funding' under this new rollout? I suppose what I am asking is: will this give people with disabilities and their family, where necessary, true control to spend the money on whatever they wish, or will it still need to come from a list of approved providers?

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (Minister for Communities and Social Inclusion, Minister for Social Housing, Minister for Disabilities, Minister for Youth, Minister for Volunteers) (15:14): I thank the honourable member for her supplementary question in regard to the definition, I suppose, of 'self-managed funding'. There are two components to self-managed funding, and one of them is an individualised budget. As I mentioned in my answer to the question, the individualised budget will be rolled out to all people with a disability of moderate to high need. The individualised budget, in consultation with the department and also probably with an independent adviser if the person wishes, will be used to draw up a plan for how those funds in the individualised budget will be spent.

That is not to say that plan will be overly prescriptive. I have outlined before in this place that there will be some minimal requirements. They will, of course, be around safeguarding and adequate training of staff and they will be around, of course, the adequate wages being award payments for those staff so that people cannot use their individualised budget to go out and undercut award wages, for example. So, they will not be able to spend their plan or their budget on whatever they wish, but they will be able to spend the money they are given on a plan that they work out with their advisers for what best suits them into the future. Whether there will be approved service providers—I am sure there will be, but that will not stop people from going to other service providers, as long as those limitations are applied.

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