Tararua District shares ‘heartbreaking’ stories over disability funding

Kieran McAnulty and Priyanca Radhakrishnan were in Tararua earlier this month to talk to families and disability advocates.

Disability cuts have made it so much harder for families dealing with disabilities, more especially in rural areas, according to Labour Disability spokeswoman Priyanca Radhakrishnan.

The List MP, accompanied by Kieran McAnulty, was in Tararua District earlier this month to talk to families and disability advocates about the recent cuts to disability funding.

She said at issue was the flexibility of how people could use the money was taken away.

“Ostensibly they’re saying there’s no cut to the monetary value.”

However, with no allowance for flexibility, it meant such things as less ability to travel outside the immediate community.

Those in rural communities who needed to access services that were large distances away, such as Palmerston North, couldn’t afford to use those services.

“There’s no recognition of places like Tararua District that doesn’t have public transport or the support services aren’t close by,” McAnulty said.

The Ministry of Disabled People (Whaikaha) was founded in July 2022.

Radhakrishnan said before that, carer support funding and individualised funding could be used for a small number of things.

Flexibility was brought in which allowed full-time carers of a disabled person to take a break.

“Now that’s been taken away,” she said.

“Prior to 2022, those funding pools were under-utilised. Because people couldn’t access it for the needs they had it was never over-spent. When flexibility was brought in, suddenly people could find some funding to support the needs they always had, so it became over-subscribed.”

Radhakrishnan said when there were caps on funding that weren’t realistic because they weren’t meeting people’s needs and then removed that, people would start using it.

“So then you need a little bit of time to figure out what the actual need is and what funding support you need to be able to meet that.

“That’s the position we’ve been in.”

She said that normally changes would be made for a year out, but following the Government’s announcement on funding in March, changes were immediately implemented, leaving some people with disabilities confused about what could be funded.

McAnulty said he had been hearing stories from many in the community.

“I knew it was bad, and I knew a lot of people were impacted. Hearing the stories to my face was heartbreaking.”

Radhakrishnan said they would keep fighting, through questions in the house and using all the tools they have available.

She was also attending meetings both with community leaders and public meetings.

“We’ve heard directly through the disabled. They are now organising rallies, protests, marches, writing to various decision makers.”

Because of that pressure, some of the decisions had been rolled back, but not all.

She said she was seeking reinstatement of flexibility funding as well as an apology from the Government for “cruel and callous remarks made by the minister” over what was said to be a misuse of funding.

The Government has yet to announce what disability funding will be included in the upcoming budget.