In The Media | 30 March 2017

Federal Court rules in favour of Victorian man over NDIS payment of transport costs

The Federal Court has upheld an appeal against the funding arrangements for transport under the National Disability Insurance Scheme.

Liam McGarrigle, 21, challenged an earlier ruling that the NDIS pay only 75 per cent of his necessary transport costs.

Justice Debbie Mortimer ruled that the decision by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal erred in law and be set aside.

She has ordered the tribunal to reconsider the matter.

Mr McGariggle, who has autism, lives at Moriac, 25 kilometres from Geelong.

He spends nearly $16,000 per year on taxis transporting him to and from his work and NDIS-supported activities.

Victorian Legal Aid’s Joel Townsend said the McGarrigle family were pleased with the decision.

“The support Liam’s receiving is not for transport in general, it’s for transport for him to attend his supported employment and to attend at his social skills classes, and those are really enormously important parts of Liam’s life,” he said.

“For other people under the scheme it will mean that whatever their particular supports are that they need they will get those if they are reasonable and necessary.”

The court decision could benefit hundreds and possibly thousands of NDIS participants who live in remote localities.

Source: ABC News