A disabled writer has complained that his NDIS funding won't allow him to buy a dishwasher or dryer but it will send a support worker around to help clean his dishes and wash his clothes.
Sebastian West - who goes by 'Fern' or 'Lars' on social media, uses 'they/he' pronouns and describes himself as 'disabled and mentally ill' - shared a three-minute rant about his NDIS funding in April.
'The NDIS is so happy to pay, like, hundreds, like four, five, six hundred dollars a week for you to have a support worker to come in to help you do your dishes and do your laundry and s***,' Mr West told his 40,000 TikTok followers.
'But they will not fund a dryer or a dishwasher which is cheaper in the long run and also, like, promotes independence for the participant because they don't have to rely on support workers coming to their house and helping them do the dishes - they just have a dishwasher that they can stack themselves.'
The 26-year-old, who lives in a three-bedroom house at Albion inMelbourne's west, said a dishwasher and a clothes dryer would allow him to be more independent and would be cheaper for the NDIS in the long run.
Sebastian West (pictured), who goes by 'Fern' or 'Lars' on social media, uses 'they/he' pronouns and and describes himself as 'disabled and mentally ill', shared a three-minute rant about his NDIS funding in April
The 26-year-old, who lives in a three-bedroom house at Albion in Melbourne's west, said a dishwasher and a clothes dryer would allow him to be more independent and would be cheaper for the NDIS in the long run
'If rich people with money get to buy a dryer so that things are easier for them, I should be able to buy a dryer with my NDIS funding because I'm disabled,' he added.
'I shouldn't have to have support workers coming to my house multiple times a week, like, just to help me with the basic things that I could just buy an appliance for.'
The video, which has received over 84,000 views, left many viewers confused about why Mr West needed help from a support worker if he could stack a dishwasher and load a washing machine independently.
'I'm confused,' wrote one.
'How is washing dishes more challenging than stacking a dishwasher?'
Another person asked what was the problem with simply hand-washing his dishes.
'It's multi-faceted,' Mr West responded.
'I struggle to keep it under control because of my mental health and I have joint issues with my fingers and the wet surfaces and heavy objects means I drop them often.'
Mr West, who in another comment said he was 'literally so grateful' for the NDIS, appeared to suggest he had bought a dishwasher and dryer with his own money.
'My NDIS didn't pay for my dryer or my dishwasher but those are the two appliances in my house that make me independent,' he said in the video.
'If I didn't have a dishwasher I wouldn't be able to do dishes. If I didn't have a dryer I wouldn't have any clean f***ing clothes.'
One commenter, who claimed to be a support worker, suggested a way of getting around the issue.
Mr West describes himself as 'autigender', which is defined online as an identity in which someone feels that their gender is connected to their autism
'Put it in your plan goals that you want to learn to do laundry independently then you can get around it,' they said.
The NDIS pointed Daily Mail Australia to a section on its website entitled 'household items'.
'We would not typically fund ordinary household items like a dishwasher or a washing machine, as they’re not likely to meet our funding criteria for supports,' it states.
The NDIS said this is because it was not a disability-related support and it was 'reasonable to expect you to fund the cost of ordinary household items in the home'.
Mr West describes himself as 'autigender', which is defined online as an identity in which someone feels that their gender is connected to their autism.
'It's not that autism is a gender, it's that your autism affects the way that you perceive of gender and your gender identity, so much that you feel like they cannot be separated,' Mr West explained in a video last year.
'I am obviously autistic. Growing up as a girl I was a tomboy, the category of girl meant nothing to me. I was like one of the boys.'
Mr West has regularly documented his inpatient treatment for mental health battles.
He also revealed in March this year he had received diagnosis of Ehlers Danlos syndrome, a group of rare inherited conditions that affect connective tissue.
'I just have my cane right now, I'm still waiting for the NDIS to get my wheelchair done,' he wrote on social media.
'I’ve been trying to get one since 2021.'
In 2021, Mr West raised almost $3,000 on a GoFundMe page to help him access psychiatric inpatient care after allegedly being 'outed' by a YouTuber.
'He claimed I was faking being trans, faking being autistic, faking being disabled, he misgenders me, mocks me, makes fun of my appearance, my weight, my transition, my body,' Mr West wrote.
'I tried my hardest to pretend like it didn’t phase (sic) me but in august 2019 I tried to take my own life because of it.'
Daily Mail Australia approached Mr West for comment.
