HELEN BONYNGE

Helen Bonynge has lived with paraplegia for the past seven years, since undergoing pelvic radiation treatment for cancer. Now she is a victim of age discrimination because her home address was on the wrong side of the Harbour Bridge when the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) was rolled out in Sydney. At 69, Helen is still waiting to see what assistance she will receive through the My Aged Care Scheme. She had her 65th birthday six weeks before the NDIS started in Sydney’s inner west, where she lives, meaning she was too old. If she lived in the Northern Beaches, where the NDIS was rolled out the previous year, she would have qualified. “I do not feel old, but the Government says that I am. It feels like at 65 you have been put on the scrap heap,” Helen said. Under the NDIS, Helen would be eligible for financial assistance and support of up to $250,000. My Aged Care only provides up to $52,000, which is means tested. NDIS is not means tested. “It is difficult to see friends with the same disabilities as me getting treated so differently, just because they are younger than me.”