AN INITIATIVE BY SPINAL LIFE AUSTRALIA

woman in wheelchair and man with crutch

DISABILITY DOESN’T
DISCRIMINATE

BUT THE GOVERNMENT DOES

If you acquire a disability after the age of 65, the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) will not fund you.

If you were 65 and living with a disability when the NDIS was implemented, you are ineligible for funding.

This is age discrimination, and it needs to end.
Get involved today! If you, or someone you care for are living with a significant disability and have been excluded from the NDIS because of your age, you can connect with Mitry Lawyers.

They are developing a class action lawsuit to encourage the Government to introduce funding support for people with significant disability over the age of 65.

Click here for more information or to complete an Expression of Interest form.

The Disability Doesn’t Discriminate campaign is operated by Spinal Life Australia – Queensland’s leading provider of services and supports to people with spinal cord damage.

24,945 signatures did not convince politicians to take action.

It’s time for more direct action now.

THE FACTS

Disability Doesn’t Discriminate, but the Government does. Turn 65 and become disabled, the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) – meant to be your safety net – doesn’t cover you. In 2013, the Federal Government deliberately amended the Age Discrimination Act allowing the NDIS to legally exclude people over the age of 65 from the NDIS. Also excluded, Australians who were over 65 and living with a disability when the NDIS was rolled out. 65 – And You are OUT! It is discrimination that could impact you, your mother, your father, your sister, your brother, or anyone you love. We need your help to end that.

1 in 5

1 in 5 Australians are living with a disability 

44.5%

Almost half of Australians living with a disability are over 65

3X

A person over 65 who has a Spinal Cord Injury receives $52,000 a year instead of $165,600

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.”

WATCH THE VIDEO

Campaign ads will hit TV screens to help stop age discrimination targeting people over 65 who are living with a disability. Disability can impact anyone at any time and doesn’t discriminate, so why should age matter? It is unfair, unjust, and unacceptable, and it must end now.

LATEST NEWS & MEDIA

Expressions of Interest open for class action

Expressions of Interest open for class action The Disability Doesn’t Discriminate campaign was launched in June last year, aiming to address the severe inequity of funding for people with a disability aged over 65, who are unable to access the NDIS. The campaign...

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Discrimination scorecard

Discrimination scorecard

DISCRIMINATION SCORECARD As this fast and furious election campaign draws to a close the Disability Doesn’t Discriminate campaign has compiled a score card as to where the political aspirants stand on the issue of age discrimination. Anyone 65 and over who acquires a...

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Another Wallaby joins the team

Another Wallaby joins the team

ANOTHER WALLABY JOINS THE TEAM The Disability Doesn’t Discriminate Campaign has great pleasure in announcing that former wallaby David Pocock, Independent Senate candidate for the ACT has thrown his support behind us. David opposes age discrimination and supports the...

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