As highlighted previously, disabled people and their whānau have been experiencing issues with transport and accessing vaccination and RAT kits. The risk of Omicron in the community also has many disabled people and their whānau avoiding public transport. Although in the earlier stages of the pandemic response Total Mobility cards allowed card holders to have free taxi fare use up to the regional fare subsidy cap, this has not continued in Omicron, despite transport needs increasing: “Total mobility cards provide a discounted taxi or other provider fares but given people with intellectual disability are high health users in non-COVID times, increased frequency of visits to doctors, to hospitals, will impact on household budgets with limited amounts being available for food and other household essentials.” (Submission) Several submissions also gave examples of disabled people and their whānau testing positive for COVID-19 and being left without disability support services during their isolation periods. This in turn meant that disabled people are left with little support, or requiring support from whānau members who themselves are unwell: “Many families and whānau have been isolated at home, sick and unable to look after their family member with the disability. There is little support for people in this situation, especially when people have to reduce their bubbles and continue to provide care (sometimes in the absence of a support worker) meaning ongoing exhaustion for family members.” (Submission) Submissions highlighted differences in the experiences of disabled people on Individualised Funding (IF) or receiving personalised budgets, or those with ACC, compared to those without: “What we’re genuinely worried about is, for lack of a better term, a class system occurring between those who have IF and those who don’t, those who have ACC and those who don’t. It’s a real class system that’s coming up. You’re touching on stuff there like the inequities with ACC and non-ACC and individualised funding and non[IF]. That’s a massive issue at the best of times and COVID just illuminates that even more so with the inequities.” (Submission) “IF users have more flexibility to employ their own workers. Personal budget holders have an even greater flexibility to use their funds to provide suitable supports. DHB funded services (for over 65 years)… are very prescriptive and some users who queried the services were told ‘take it or leave it’, no attempt was made to meet the needs of the clients.” (Māori submission) 33