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A financial crisis is ripping through the ranks of Service Providers, as they desperately attempt to continue offering services to clients while waiting for the new funding periods to kick in.

This inflexibility of is not just hindering participants from accessing supports when needs change, but also creating chaos in the market as it places providers under real financial pressure. Most providers simply lack cash reserves and are struggling to both provide services and find the money to pay for them.

AXIS Supports has now carried out a comprehensive, detailed survey providing evidence of just how small providers are suffering, as our Big Story reports.

Best, Nic Stuart, [email protected]

A survey has revealed the devastating impact of a new policy that delays the release of funds to service providers. Eighty percent of those surveyed now say they’re suffering severe financial losses as they struggle to continue offering services.

James Aspland isn’t the sort of person who gives up easily. As Business Development Manager for AXIS Supports Group in the ACT, he’s become accustomed to extracting everything he can from his resources, while putting together plans to support his clients.

And he’s invested in the sector, providing training for TAFE students at the same time as he’s patching together plans incorporating physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech pathology, and psychology for his clients.

But this is not his ‘happy place’. Not anymore.

Aspland speaks quickly and with energy as he describes the huge problem he’s having as he attempts to cover the funding gap while waiting for the NDIS to reimburse clients for services.

“I couldn’t work out if it was just me or how other service providers were coping. So I decided to ask them in an effort to find out how widespread this problem is,” Aspland says.

He compiled a quick but detailed survey before sending it out to other providers. The results were devastating, both in their unanimity and the picture they painted of even brilliantly managed companies finding themselves quickly plunged into crisis.

More than 87% of businesses say they've been dramatically affected by the cuts, and all of these say the changed funding release periods have also resulted in a major negative impact for clients.

One provider commented that in one instance, transitioning to the new funding release dates is creating significant risks.

“Our participant is now at risk of being left without supports [with] no way of supporting themselves. If the provider continues to maintain the minimum hours of support required there is a shortfall of tens of thousands of dollars every quarter,” they added.

The survey demonstrates how businesses that have made the effort to gain registration as accredited NDIS providers are now being crushed by the very system they’re attempting to work within.

Without the resources of larger providers to fall back on, many are now having to choose between continuing to provide services to clients or cutting back simply so they can stay in business.

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