Government Short Sighted in Approach to Funding Hearing Aids

While the Government has announced an overhaul of the tax system and signalled a new approach to welfare, the National Foundation for the Deaf (NFD) has called for an innovative approach to health services as well.

The NFD says the funding system for hearing aids is gridlocked and even needing hearing aids to keep a job is not considered important enough for urgent funding.

“It’s bizarre that keeping your job, paying taxes, and staying off welfare is not considered important enough to get hearing aid funding,” Louise Carroll, General Manager of the NFD, said today.

“The Prime Minister signalled yesterday a tougher stance on welfare and yet by denying funding for hearing aids so people can keep their jobs and keep their independence, welfare is exactly where many people will end up.

“If the Government is serious about earning more tax revenue and stopping people going on to welfare, it needs to look at the bigger picture – it needs to be innovative.”

Ms Carroll said people were waiting for 12 months and more for hearing aid and other disability funding, with only those whose safety is at risk getting funding quickly.

She said the NFD was alarmed Mr Key declared in parliament that “most agencies will see no additional funding for several years”.

“Disability funding is an investment, not a handout,” she said.

“If the Government wants to ease the welfare burden it needs to get people waiting for services the funding they need so they can get on with their lives and contribute.”

Ms Carroll said Mr Key was concerned about the future cost of welfare, but she said rising costs were inevitable with the ageing population and it was time for innovative thinking on how to manage these costs.

“We want to sit around the table with the Government and look at new ways of helping people help themselves,” she said.

“We need a fresh approach from the Government and its agencies, and the only way we are going to get that is to get around the table and look seriously at the options.

“But before we even start that, we need to fix the gridlock that is tying up the lives of people waiting for funding for hearing aids and other disability services.”

ENDS

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