Why is there a 300% increase in appeals to the National Disability Insurance Agency decisions?

Since the second half of 2021, appeals to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal have risen 300%. The National Disability Insurance Agency was set up in 2013 to provide services and support to people suffering physical and mental injury.

The process was meant to be informal, accessible and inquisitorial. Since then it has become formal with lawyers involved making it inaccessible when legal assistance is denied and must be paid for whilst the government has unlimited resources at its disposal and keeps denying claims resulting in the explosion of appeals. It is fast becoming the Workcover model.

In this interview I discuss with Fiona Barnett what has changed and provide a first hand insight into the tricks being used to shut people out of a system that was never meant to happen...and as usual it is about cutting spending whilst the money spend on lawyers to deny is never checked and amounts to much larger sums of money wasted.