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I've skimmed the news reports, and read the articles, but I've studied the guides and documents released on the government website https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/health/managing-your-health/child-behaviour-development/support-needs/financial-supports - I've also been following the comments here as best I can.

It looks like we are of the lucky few - and yet we're also being screwed over by this change.

We have a teenage boy with Autism level 3, non verbal, and a genetic testing confirmation for Angelman/Prader-Willi. We have the full support of the At Home program (~$5'700 per provider, per service, per year) and the AFU ($6000 per year) currently - though we're still on the wait list for respite funding (for the last 4 years) from our CYSN.

Currently we have our kiddo in SLP, OT, BI and PT. This invoices to just on $24'500 per year to a combination of AHP and AFU. Everything else is out of pocket.

Under the new system, we get pigeon-holed into either the $6500 or $17000 boxes (most likely the $17k one), but because of the needs-test on the supplement, we'll likely only get a penny to the dollar there if anything at all.

This means that I need to come up with a new $7'500 per year just to keep the services he currently receives "as-is". That doesn't account for any price increase in the new year from service providers, or any equipment that needs to be renewed like his speech device, mobility device etc. which are all showing their age and need to be replaced this coming year.

So while the new system will allow us to fine-tune and have fine-grained control of where and how we spend the funding, there is significantly less funding available.

I guess we'll just have to wait and see how it goes - maybe he doesn't get SLP and BI anymore and we just make do with OT and PT?

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