Disability campaigners presented a petition and a box full of stories asking the government to listen on 23 March, 2021. Photo: RNZ / Dom Thomas
Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston wants to strip Whaikaha of its role in delivering support services, and instead shift it to the Ministry of Social Development.
The move has been met with a scathing response from some disability advocates, who said the community was not consulted and said the ministry played an important role in giving them control over decisions that affect their lives.
Funding for residential care is also frozen, those in the sector said they have already chipped as much as they can off their budgets and they are worried.
IHC advocacy director Tania Thomas, who has worked in the sector for the past 40 years, told Checkpoint she was still getting to terms with the information released on Thursday.
"The devil is in the detail, when you think of the reason that these changes have come about, it's because of unsustainable spending. I don't think anyone in the sector expected there to be any more funding," she said.
"We have been underfunded for so long. It's a really complex sector, the disability support sector and we're just crying out for Whaikaha the ministry, and the ministers to actually figure it out and work it out because it's just taking so long."
She said one of the recommendations from the review was that there would be a review of the criteria and the eligibility for flexible funding.
Another recommendation was that there would be a review on how pricing was done for residential services, which would take six to eight months, she said.
"Honestly, that's been going on for 20 years. For me, I'm just sort of thinking, gosh, could we just get on with it? There's just this wait and wait and wait and this is all about improved services for people with disabilities. Actually, it's all about cutting costs."
She said as a result of the changes, there would be an impact on access to services and the potential for people to lose funding.
"Disability support services, their main expense or what they spend money on is staffing. It's very difficult to tighten the belt and you've got to start working and looking at your staffing ratios and that's a concern," she said.
She said the current freeze for residential facilities meant there had been no cost of living increase.
"We already know that, the service is already underfunded. It means that if there are any services that are required because of client needs there'll be many hoops to jump through because it's frozen, so you've got to take from Peter and give to Paul, that sort of approach, and that's not good," she said.
She said the availability of residential spots was up to each service provider to decide.
"Let's face it, a lot of the providers are working towards people having more choice and control and that means moving to more flexible choices of how you get your support and residential care isn't the most ideal," she said.
"For people who want to live more independently, there will always be a place for residential support, so at this point I don't know what those other providers are thinking of, but it's not great."
She said in regard to most of the budget heading off to MSD to manage, that MSD needed to communicate clearly and concisely with people in a timely manner.
"Because most people, what they want to know, is how does this affect me personally and when you can't get the detail that you need, people fill that vacuum or they start worrying unnecessarily," she said.
She said Whaikaha had promised to keep advocating for people with disabilities in its new role.
"In this transition, there are mechanisms for people to talk to them, get answers to their questions and sometimes there aren't always answers, but at least if people keep asking questions, those questions can alert Whaikaha and MSD to are the kinds of issues that are around," she said.
"But they have to keep talking to the communities that use these services and that hasn't always been done well."
Thomas said she had met Minister Louise Upston.
"She's a straight talker and she's very transparent. That's my experience of her," she said.
"But when you're looking to get, you know, sustainable spending, it means there's cuts and cuts don't always mean improve services for people that are disabled."
