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Bronwyne Chapman says she has been saving to buy a car since she first got her license 25 years ago, but said the upfront cost of paying for a vehicle on a disability pension is simply too much of a barrier.
Key points:
- People living with disabilities in regional areas say the costs of car ownership are prohibitive
- The NDIS will fund modifications to vehicles, but an advocate says the criteria is to strict
- One young man with cerebral palsy says he's had to resort to crowdfunding in a bid to feel less isolated
The Newcastle local is one of a number of National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) recipients who is calling for the scheme to help cover the cost of purchasing a vehicle for those in regional areas.
Ms Chapman, who lives with brittle bone disease, said having access to a car would be life-changing.
"Just the cost of the car, only being able to work part time, means that the size of the loan that I would need to buy one — it's just too difficult to pay back," she said.
"It would mean freedom, for one — being able to have a lot more regular contact with my family, being able to have a lot more contact with my friends who live outside of Newcastle.
"We just want what everybody else has, like the ability to go to work, the ability to see our family and friends and be able to go and do the things we need to do."
The NDIS does not fund the purchase of a car. but can fund the extra cost of modifying the vehicle if it is deemed suitable.
Generally speaking, that would mean the vehicle is less than three years old and has less than 45,000 kilometres on the odometer.
Advocate says scheme needs a shake-up
The CEO of Disability Advocacy NSW Mark Grierson said many cars in the price range of NDIS recipients would fail to meet those benchmarks.
"While they will pay for the vehicle modifications, it's not much good if people get all the modifications in the world to a vehicle they can't afford in the first place," he said.
Mr Grierson said given the massive underspend in the NDIS, it was timely for the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) to think differently about how it approached regional and remote customers.
"In the city you can get trains, buses, trams and things like that," he said.
"But people in regional areas have less access to taxis, they need to work and visit relatives and friends, so they need to have a better form of transport which suits their needs.
"There are individual solutions for individual people and that was the whole idea of the NDIS — to tailor support in the way that people needed it."
Batemans Bay man Tyson Martin said he was forced to start his own crowd funding campaign to buy a car, after pleading with the NDIA for more than six months.
The 20-year-old has quadriplegic cerebral palsy and said he wanted to continue living in Batemans Bay and cannot afford to live in a capital city.
"I can understand that they can't pay for everyone, but they should look at every individual case more thoroughly before they say no," Mr Martin said.
"I'm stuck at home and I get very sad and depressed because I can't go anywhere unless I walk or catch a taxi."
A spokesperson for the NDIA said while the NDIS provides some assistance, the states and territories are responsible for making transport accessible.
"This includes transport to essential services such as health and education in regional and remote areas," the spokesperson said.
Topics: disabilities, health, transport, regional, bega-2550, batemans-bay-2536, newcastle-2300