NDIS sends letter to 'Ms Intellectual Disability', acknowledges 'very unfortunate' e
The National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) has called one of its clients "Ms. Intellectual Disability" in a letter it sent them.
Key points:
Woman's first name was replaced by her condition at the top of the letter
Agency "acknowledges" very unfortunate error and "apologises profusely"
Woman says she is satisfied with response, won't be taking matters further
The Melbourne woman's first name was replaced by the condition at the top of the letter, which could be seen through the envelope's window and easily viewed by postal staff.
The embarrassing bungle happened early this month.
"Just got my first letter from the NDIS," the woman wrote on Facebook at the time.
"It's not giving me much confidence in their systems (or their mail-merging capabilities)," she said.
The National Disability Insurance Agency — the Commonwealth body responsible for the NDIS — conceded it was a "very unfortunate" mistake.
"The agency acknowledges this was a very unfortunate error and acted swiftly to contact the recipient to apologise," a spokeswoman said in a statement.
"Following investigations the agency believes this was an isolated incident.
"Agency processes have since been reviewed and improved to assist in preventing this particular issue from reoccurring."
The woman spoke to an NDIS official who "apologised profusely".
"I am satisfied with this response and won't be taking matters any further," she said.
This error follows disability service providers complaining about not being paid by the federal agency because of problems with its IT portal.
It also comes amid uncertainty around the scheme's future in the ACT.
It was originally estimated 5,075 Canberrans would eventually sign up for the uncapped NDIS, but that number has already been reached.
The Federal Government wants a new agreement with the ACT to cover the extra clients.