More than 800 people living with disabilities in the Auckland area can now manage their money more easily following the launch of a new online funding portal by Enliven Individualised Funding.
The portal was launched as part of the lead up to the International Day of Persons with Disabilities on Wednesday December 3. It will also be rolled out to another 1400 people with disabilities throughout the upper North Island in coming weeks.
Enliven General Manager Wendy Hoskin says the theme of this year’s International Day of Persons with Disabilities is: Fostering disability inclusive societies for advancing social progress.
“This theme ties in well with our new portal as it makes life much easier for our clients.
“The portal makes it easy to load funding claims with less paperwork and provides access to real time spending allowing people to track their budget for each kind of disability funding they receive.
“There are also safeguards and alerts in place to ensure clients enter data correctly.”
Hoskin says the portal fits well with the Enabling Good Lives principles and the national approach to supporting disabled people so they can plan for the lives they want.
Presbyterian Support Northern (PSN) initially started work on developing the portal some time ago and brought in clients to advise on the project.
“We’re grateful for the input of our trial group of clients who tested the portal and recommended some tweaks to improve the client experience,” Wendy Hoskin said.
“The result is a portal that will make life easier for our Individualised Funding clients. They will be able to see exactly what they’ve spent their money on, how much they have left and how much they can claim.”
Enliven has more than 2200 Individualised Funding clients in the upper North Island with disabilities ranging from sensory, physical and neurodiversity or a mix of these, including those with high and complex needs.
Hoskin says the portal has been well received and feedback is positive.
“I have had experience using a portal when I was with another host and your portal is so much more simpler and information regarding budgets appears much more accessible and understandable,” says one client.
“The care portal is fantastic - with the graph it is all very simple to follow and those pie graphs are a great way to see the budget and where you at,” says another.
“We’re delighted with this kind of feedback,” says Hoskin. “People with disabilities and their households face all kinds of challenges every day. The fact that we can make life easier for them makes it all worthwhile and is a great way to celebrate the International Day of Persons with Disabilities.
If you would like to learn more about Individualised Funding or the services that Enliven offers, please email Ifenliven@psn.org.nz or call 098225115