What happens if you’re eligible?
On the day we decide you’re eligible for the NDIS, you become a NDIS participant.
The time that you remain eligible for the NDIS depends on your individual circumstances and NDIS support needs.
You’ll need to continue to be eligible for the NDIS. This means you’ll need to continue to live in Australia and be an Australian citizen or permanent resident. You’ll also need to continue to meet requirements for disability, early intervention requirements or both.
Learn more about whether you will always be eligible and leaving the NDIS.
We’ll send you a letter to let you know:
- you are eligible
- if you met the requirements for disability, early intervention, or both
- the next steps.
Your letter will also confirm the date you became eligible for the NDIS.
If you applied on or after 1 January 2025, your letter will include a Notice of impairments which gives you more information about your eligibility for the NDIS.
If you applied before 1 January 2025, you won’t get a Notice of impairments, even if you become eligible for the NDIS after 1 January 2025.
Learn more about the Notice of impairments.
What is a Notice of impairments?
The Notice of impairments (notice) tells you the categories of impairments you have met access for. The categories of impairments relate to the impairments for which you met the requirements for early intervention, disability or both.
You can contact us if you have any questions about your Notice of impairments.
When a child younger than 6 with developmental delay becomes a NDIS participant, we’ll also send a Notice of impairments. This notice will state that the child has developmental delay, it will not include the categories of impairments listed below.
What are the categories of impairments?
The categories of impairments are:
- intellectual impairments – such as how you speak and listen, read and write, solve problems, and process and remember information. An intellectual impairment may become apparent at an early age or during a child’s early development.
- cognitive impairments – such as how you might think, learn new things, use judgement to make decisions, and pay attention. There are some similarities with intellectual impairments, but cognitive impairments may appear at a later stage in life or after a sudden event or injury.
- neurological impairments – such as how your body’s nervous system may function. Neurological impairments can happen when there is a change in the function of the nervous system, such as in the brain or spinal cord. Damage to these parts of the body may affect the way the nervous system processes information.
- sensory impairments – such as how you see and hear. Sensory impairments usually relate to hearing or vision loss but may include all senses.
- physical impairments – such as the ability to move or control parts of your body. Physical impairments may affect your stamina, or how quickly your body gets tired.
- impairments relating to a psychosocial disability – this means you have reduced capacity to do daily life activities and tasks due to your mental health.
Can I apply to change my Notice of impairments?
You can apply for a change to your Notice of impairments. We call this varying the Notice of impairments.
If you think we have made a mistake, or you would like to vary the Notice of impairments, you should contact us. You may want to apply to add a category of impairments, or to remove an existing category of impairments. To do this you’ll need to give us new evidence.
Learn more about giving us the evidence we need.
We will look at the new evidence you gave us to decide if we need to add or remove the categories of impairments in your notice.
We will send you a letter telling you if we decide to vary or not vary your Notice of impairments.
If we vary your Notice of impairments, you will get a new Notice of impairments. This new notice replaces any previous Notice of impairments you have received.
Your Notice of impairments, whether we vary it or not doesn’t change your eligibility to be a NDIS participant.
If you don’t agree with our decision to vary or not to vary the Notice of impairments, you can ask for a review of the decision.
Learn more about Reviewing our decisions.
Example
Oscar recently became a participant of the NDIS. Oscar gets a letter telling him that his NDIS application was successful, and he’s now a participant. This letter includes a Notice of impairments.
Oscar is 25 years old and is eligible for the NDIS under the age, residency and disability requirements. Oscar has a permanent impairment relating to his spinal cord injury.
Oscar’s Notice of impairments tells him the categories that relate to his permanent impairments. These categories of impairments are physical and neurological.
At Oscar’s first planning conversation, they discuss the NDIS supports that relate to Oscar’s physical and neurological impairments. Oscar understands that he can apply to vary his Notice of impairments at any time if he wants.
How will we create your first plan?
After you receive the letter confirming you’re eligible, we’ll contact you to organise your first planning conversation. We’ll contact you within 21 days.
We’ll then work together to create your plan. If you received help to make community connections, we can build on the information and goals we talked about and include these supports in your plan.
Learn more about community connections and early connections.
You’ll receive a plan that sets out your NDIS supports. NDIS supports are the services, items and equipment that can be funded by the NDIS.
Your plan will include NDIS supports for the impairments that meet the requirements for disability, early intervention or both.
For example, you may have many impairments, but only one meets our eligibility criteria. Or you might get another impairment after we decide you’re eligible. If so, we only fund NDIS supports for impairments that meet the requirements for disability, early intervention, or both.
If you’re aged 7 or older, we must approve your first plan within 56 days after you become a participant.
For children younger than 7, we’ll approve their first plan within 90 days after they become a participant.
For more information, check out creating your plan.
Will you always be eligible for the NDIS?
There are many reasons for leaving the NDIS.
Some people decide they don’t want to be a participant anymore.
You’ll also leave the NDIS if you’re no longer eligible.
When we reassess your plan, we check that all your details are correct and up to date. We also look at any new information we have received.
If you’re eligible under the early intervention requirements, your support needs are more likely to change. We’ll check at each plan reassessment and at other times, whether you still meet the early intervention requirements.
For example, during a plan reassessment it may show you no longer meet the early intervention requirements because you have built your skills and capacity and will no longer benefit from NDIS supports.
If you’re eligible under the disability requirements, your disability is permanent. We don’t expect your disability to change, and it’s likely you’ll need NDIS supports for your lifetime. We will only ask you for more information about your eligibility if there is evidence that you may no longer meet the disability requirements.
You can find out more about the eligibility requirements, and how we check these, at am I eligible .
Children with developmental delay will usually leave the NDIS after they turn 6.
Over time, you might develop your skills and independence and not need NDIS supports anymore.
If you met the requirements for early intervention and not disability, you usually won’t be eligible after the early intervention supports, which are NDIS supports have benefitted you. For example, if you needed early intervention supports to achieve your goal to improve your functional capacity, and your functional capacity improves, you may no longer meet the early intervention requirements anymore.
If you’re no longer eligible, we’ll help you transition from the NDIS and make sure you are connected with other services in your community, if you need them. We’ll also keep your information, so you can apply again if your situation changes.
Learn more about leaving the NDIS.