PWDA welcomes Senate rejection of automated aged care assessments, warns against repeating the harm in the NDIS

People with Disability Australia (PWDA), the national cross-disability rights and advocacy organisation, has welcomed the Senate’s recognition of the harm caused by automated aged care assessments and warned the Federal Government not to repeat the same mistakes in the NDIS.

The Greens, Coalition and crossbench today backed a motion calling on the Government to abolish the Integrated Assessment Tool following serious concerns about older people being assessed for less care than they need and not being prioritised for funding when they were desperately short of what they need to live safely and with dignity.

PWDA Acting CEO Megan Spindler-Smith said the decision was an important win for older people, including older people with disability who rely on the aged care system for essential support.

“Not every person with disability is on the NDIS. For many older people with disability, aged care is the system they rely on to get the support they need to live safely, independently and with dignity.

“Four Corners showed Australians what cruel automated decision-making means for people’s lives. The system was returning bad results and costing people the supports they needed to live safely and with dignity. It is heartbreaking it took this long for action.

“For older people with disability, getting an assessment wrong can mean going without help to shower, prepare food, leave the house or live safely and independently.

“The lesson for Government could not be clearer. We cannot keep rolling out automated decision-making across essential services, watch the harm unfold and only then put people and accountability back into the system.”

PWDA Interim President Jarrod Sandell-Hay called on the Government to implement the Robodebt Royal Commission’s recommendations in full and reconsider its approach to automated assessment and decision-making in the NDIS.

“We cannot afford a RoboNDIS Royal Commission.

“Robodebt destroyed lives. Now we have seen automated aged care assessments leave older people without the care they need. How many warnings does a government need?

“The Government is planning to roll out automated decision-making in the NDIS while banking billions of dollars in savings from disability supports.

“You cannot hand life-changing decisions to an algorithm, without clear human intervention, and balance the budget by cutting people off from the supports they need. That is cruelty dressed up as a fiscal decision.

“The Government needs to learn from what happened in aged care and change course before the same harm is repeated in the NDIS.

“Put people, human judgement and accountability at the centre of decisions about the supports disabled people need to live our lives.”