00:00Fraudsters who were taking advantage of the NDIS have spread to targeting veterans, causing
00:09harm to former service people and driving up the cost of the veterans payment program.
00:15The government invested about a half billion dollars into clearing a backlog in the veterans
00:19payment scheme in the last term of government, but speeding up that system has made it a
00:25bit of a honeypot for bad actors, and that includes reports of dodgy medical professionals,
00:32doctors and allied health professionals submitting false reports, sometimes medical reports with
00:38services not actually provided to veterans.
00:42Meanwhile, a new cottage industry of fee-for-service advocates has sprung up around the scheme.
00:49Some of these advocates sometimes charging commissions of more than a quarter of a veteran's lifetime
00:55payment for help navigating the system.
00:58In response, the federal government has committed a $203 million crackdown into dodgy providers
01:06operating in this scheme, stepping up fraud detection and providing more funding for free
01:11advocacy services so veterans don't have to turn to these paid models.
01:16Intelligence agencies have warned that the footprints of fraudulent providers who were operating in
01:22the NDIS have been seen in other government payments.
01:26And Veterans Affairs Minister Matt Keogh says the government is stepping up its efforts in
01:31the veteran's scheme to stop that spread.
01:33Sometimes they're taking the name of a veteran in vain, they're saying they're providing
01:37a service to someone and they're not providing it, or they're billing for services that are
01:42different to the types of service that were actually provided, or they're doubling up on claims.
01:47All of these things then create churn in the system, they get in the way of us being able
01:52to make sure that veterans are getting the support they actually need when they need it.
01:57And so we're investing over $203 million over the next four years in stepping up our integrity
02:03efforts to make sure that we're catching those people that are bad actors, a minority, but
02:09it's having an impact on our veterans.
02:11It obviously has an impact on driving up some of the costs in the system as well.
02:15Now on top of the crackdown, the government will also begin consulting on law reforms to
02:21protect veterans from predatory services.
02:25These advocacy services have traditionally been run by volunteers helping the veterans
02:29to navigate what is a complicated payment system, support them to get the medical reports
02:35and other things that they need in order to be approved for a claim.
02:39About a fifth of the roughly 100,000 claims a year are now coming from for-profit advocates,
02:46which has doubled from a year ago.
02:48And unlike tax and migration agents, this sector is largely unregulated because it is quite new.
02:54The Department of Veterans Affairs says that some, not all, are exaggerating claims and manipulating
03:00the payment scheme for profit.
03:02And the Returned Services League is among groups saying the profit-driven business model should
03:07be banned outright.
03:08So, we're going to do this.
03:09We're going to have a lot of different things.
03:11We're going to have a lot of different things.
03:12We're going to have a lot of different things.
03:13We're going to have a lot of different things.
03:14We're going to have a lot of different things.
03:15We're going to have a lot of different things.
03:16We're going to have a lot of different things.
03:17We're going to have a lot of different things.
03:18We're going to have a lot of different things.
03:19We're going to have a lot of different things.
03:20We're going to have a lot of different things.
03:21We're going to have a lot of different things.
03:22We're going to have a lot of different things.
03:23We're going to have a lot of different things.
03:24We're going to have a lot of different things.
03:25We're going to have a lot of different things.
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