Fast food, drugs used to bribe clients into handing over lucrative NDIS packages

23 hours ago 5

Disability workers have been caught bribing vulnerable clients with fast food, illegal drugs, cash, laptops and other incentives to exploit them into signing over their National Disability Insurance Service packages.

Inspectors charged with monitoring Victoria’s residential accommodation services have also uncovered an NDIS support worker trying to siphon funds from a patient’s bank account among a series of cases they claim demonstrate “unchecked opportunism” and a lack of oversight or reporting in the system.

Victoria’s Office of the Public Advocate and community visitors have reported cases of exploitation of vulnerable clients by unscrupulous NDIS providers.

In a paper highlighting the manipulation of vulnerable supported accommodation residents, Victoria’s Office of the Public Advocate (OPA) has called out the tactics of unscrupulous NDIS providers, which include bribery and the delivery of incentives.

The OPA claims it is regularly seeing NDIS workers pushing clients to switch their Supported Residential Services arrangements, including using coercive control to exploit people with disabilities to move packages worth tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars.

“OPA is aware of targeted incentives which have included access to fast food, cash or illegal drugs,” the OPA’s Manipulation and personal autonomy discussion paper states.

“OPA assumes that the goal of these targeted incentives is gaining control of the person’s NDIS package.

Former Victorian Public Advocate Dr Colleen Pearce.

“Where this is achieved, the provider may simply rely on the person’s invisibility to safeguarding agencies or mainstream services in order to continue spending their NDIS funds.”

The allegations were raised by Dr Colleen Pearce in her then role as Victorian Public Advocate, in a discussion paper circulated to stakeholders in late 2024 and seen by The Age, and were intended to push for greater safeguards for vulnerable residents.

The claims are further supported by cases uncovered by Victoria’s authorised supported accommodation inspectors in the past year and disclosed in the Community Visitors Annual Report released by the OPA last week.

Victoria currently has 329 community visitors, who are volunteers authorised by parliament to undertake unannounced visits to disability, mental health and residential homes across the state to monitor and report on the adequacy of services. Cases reported this year include:

An NDIS support worker who attempted to change a resident’s bank account details and was reported to police, who took action against the worker. The matter was also reported to the National Disability Insurance Agency, but it failed to provide any response.
An NDIS worker who locks a client’s medication in a box and then charges their funding package each time they administer the medication.
A resident being told they must move from their Supported Residential Services into a different home or they would lose their NDIS services. The resident’s mental health workers were not happy about the proposed change, which would have generated greater fees for the NDIS provider.
A client’s NDIS plan was charged for services and aids that were never provided. The resident’s home was threatened by the NDIS provider when it helped the client to change services and, although the matter was reported to the Social Services Regulator, the resident was told it was “outside the scope” of the state’s new watchdog.

In another case, a resident was offered weekly cash payments from their NDIS allocation if they moved to a particular Supported Residential Service. The client, who needed 24-hour care, accepted the offer but later reported being scared and not having their meals organised or medication managed properly at the new home.

It was discovered a “scout” from the NDIS service had offered several other residents inducements to move but, when the matter was reported to the Social Services Regulator, it stated the allegations were outside the scope of its authority.

The OPA report, presented by acting Public Advocate Daniel Leighton, made recommendations calling for powers of referral direct to the National Disability Insurance Agency to ensure it acted when unscrupulous providers were detected, as well as improved information sharing between agencies.

“Community visitors continue to hear stories of abuse and exploitation by NDIS providers towards SRS [Supported Residential Service] residents and continue to be frustrated by their inability to escalate such matters directly to the NDIA,” the report said.

The 329 community visitors reported more than 6000 issues last year while undertaking more than 3200 inspections at more than 1100 facilities. Those figures included almost 3500 issues in disability services alone.

The annual report by Victoria’s authorised supported accommodation inspectors also highlighted issues with the state government’s new Social Services Regulator, which has had specialty regulators scrapped in favour of a single giant authority overseeing everything from disability, family violence, sexual assault and homelessness services, to Supported Residential Services and childcare operators.

“Community visitors are concerned that the SSR [Social Services Regulator] has been established with insufficient resources and or regulatory specificity to ensure that all Victorians receive social supports to the standards expected by the Victorian public,” the inspectors’ report stated.

In response to questions from this masthead, the OPA said while there are many excellent registered NDIS service providers, the scheme has failed to provide adequate oversight which leaves clients open to manipulation, exploitation and abuse.

The OPA said community visitors have borne witness to the small set of providers seeking to exploit residents with NDIS packages, including clients with cognitive impairments, dementia, long-term effects of drug or alcohol usage or stroke, who can be “easy pickings for unscrupulous providers”.

An NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission spokesperson said the agency was working to improve information sharing with community visitor organisations and was undertaking a trial in NSW to develop a national approach.

“We acknowledge the important role that community visitors play in the NDIS. Their work with participants and providers helps improve quality and deliver safe outcomes for NDIS participants,” the spokesperson said.

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