There has been a 75% drop in the number of people getting a job through Disability Services Australia, thanks to the NDIS.

Disability Services Australia (DSA) was started in 1956 by a group of parents to create employment opportunities for their children with a disability.

They employ 500 people, and provide support to 2,500 every year.

However, Group Operations Manager Heath Dickens tells Ben Fordham the NDIS is crippling their work.

“Due to implementation processes and delays it has led to a 75% drop in the number of people accessing supported employment.”

It used to take 24 hours for the DSA to organise work for someone. Now, the process takes up to nine months.

“There are some minor changes they can make to the process that will implement and foster this employment first approach to the NDIS planning process”, says Mr Dickens.

Paul Elliot joins Ben and Heath in the studio, he has been a proud employee of the DSA for 15 years working his way up from packing mouth guards into blister packs to running reception.

Paul has told Ben if the DSA wasn’t there to help people like him, ‘we’d all just be at home doing nothing.’

Click PLAY below to hear the full interview with Heath and Paul in the studio.