Kia ora tātou

It’s unfortunate to be heading into Easter with the weight of the recent announcements around changes to support funding sitting over our community. At DPA, we continue to be deeply concerned about the impact of these changes on disabled people, our families and whānau. 

We would like to thank all of you who have taken the time to share with us your thoughts including responding to our survey on the announcements and joining our national members’ hui last Saturday. 

Initially, this hui was for reporting back on member's priorities for DPA's advocacy work that came out of the February members' survey. However, participants at Saturday's hui gave us a strong mandate to prioritise supporting the call for disability support to be properly funded and able to be used flexibly.

Our team is now focused on collating and analysing, as rapidly as possible, the 180 responses we received to our support funding survey, after which we will seek a meeting with the Minister and officials.  

DPA's core message is that sufficient income and access to support is essential for disabled people to live and participate in their community with dignity and self-respect.  

With the individual needs of disabled people as diverse as disabled people themselves, we know that flexibility in funding is key to achieving wellbeing in our lives. Something a prescriptive ‘one size fits all’ rule-based approach does not allow.  

There is a clear need for Government to take a cross-government approach to support flexible funding for disabled people that allows for disabled people and their families and whānau to participate in society with dignity. 

If you have anything you would like to share, please email us at: info@dpa.org.nz