Whaikaha’s “draconian” and “outrageous” funding  changes will hit hard 

PRESS RELEASE   

The Cerebral Palsy Society of New Zealand is strongly opposed to the “draconian” changes Whaikaha – Ministry of Disabled People is making to its Purchasing Rules and Equipment and Modification Services (EMS).  

Amy Hogan lives with Cerebral Palsy, is a member of the Society and works as the Society’s Researcher and Member Support Advisor.  

“The processes to allocate funding were fragile and broken to start with. But this is making it even harder for people to access the support they need,” she says.  

Whaikaha announced on Monday, March 18 that they were making changes to its Purchasing Rules “to clarify how people can use their disability support funding”. The changes were effective immediately.  

Amy says the sudden changes and the lack of details make things very confusing.  

“It’s like the rug has been pulled out from under you. 

“These changes have been pushed through with zero consultation and zero explanation about what they mean. It’s not a carefully thought-out exercise for a sector that needs careful consideration.” 

Amy says she knows very little about what the changes mean for her, “beyond the fact it is going to make it harder to access everything and harder to justify the ‘necessity’ of the expense considering the vagueness of the inclusion and exclusion language”.  

“It’s going to affect my work life, my social life, my family life and I’m not even going to be the ‘worst’ affected.” 

Amy says the impact of the changes will be felt hard by many people living with a disability and their support networks. 

“They are making the criteria narrower and narrower. It’s shrink-flation for disability services. They are cutting funding in all but name.  

“This is going to affect Society members who were already struggling and finding the funding and entitlement process difficult to navigate. They will struggle even more with how to get their heads around it,” Amy says. 

The Cerebral Palsy Society’s Chairman Daniel Clay says, “the changes seem draconian and ill conceived”.    

“They will leave big gaps in what people should be able to use their funding for. They will hinder New Zealand’s disabled community’s ability to live good and independent lives. 

“Whaikaha is effectively reducing funding entitlements,” Daniel says. “The purchasing rules exclude reasonable costs and assume that items purchased replace funded support, but they are often needed in addition to support to enable independence.   

“The bar for equipment funding has also been set too high and will result in people being forced to use disability equipment which is no longer fit for purpose. These changes will negatively impact many of our members,” Daniel says.  

The Cerebral Palsy Society is concerned at the process Whaikaha undertook to make the changes. 

“There was no consultation, and these changes came in with immediate effect,” Daniel says.  “There was no time for people and families to plan for funding limits. Whaikaha claim that they will partner with the disabled community and listen to their voices. 

“However, these changes were unilaterally made without any community input. Whaikaha needs to stop and listen to the people most affected before making such major changes to their lives.” 

The Society says it, and other like-minded organisations, need to be involved in direct discussions with Whaikaha to ensure changes to funding are fair and reasonable. 

For more information, please contact:   

 Melanie Louden  
Communications Manager 
Cerebral Palsy Society  
022 087 8191  
melanie@cpsociety.org.nz