Supporting the disabled community

Louise Upston released:

Immediate action will be taken to stabilise the disability support system after an independent review found the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha was ‘ill-prepared’ to deliver these services when it was established in 2022.

“This Government is committed to supporting disabled people, which is why we provided a record $1.1 billion funding boost to disability support services in this year’s Budget,” Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says.

“We must now take urgent action after an independent review found the delivery of these services is in a dire state, with unsustainable spending and a lack of fairness and transparency around what support disabled people can access.

“The review found much of the problem stems from the previous government’s ‘rushed’ six-month establishment of the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha.

Disability funding is one of the most challenging areas of government support, because each person’s circumstances can be so different, so it is very challenging to have fair and transparent criteria.

Disability funding has never been performed particularly well, and it was fragmented over several agencies such as Ministry of Health and Education and MSD. The concept of one funding agency was a good one, but as is often the case, the previous Government went for a big bang approach of a brand new agency. That means no inherited systems or controls. Expecting a new Ministry to go from nothing to a $1billion+ funder in a short period of time was always unrealistic, just like the HealthNZ merger.

The Office of Disability Issues was a small team of 15 with a policy focus, and growing that to a full Ministry of 500+ staff administering $1 billion of funding was not something easily achievable, if at all.