When would a nominee appointment be cancelled or suspended?

What if I want to change or cancel my nominee?
When might we suspend a nominee’s appointment?
What do we think about when we cancel or suspend a nominee’s appointment?
When do we have to cancel a nominee’s appointment?
What happens when we cancel or suspend a nominee’s appointment?
What if I want my nominee’s appointment to continue?

There are several reasons why we may suspend or cancel your nominee’s appointment.

If your nominee doesn’t comply with certain duties, we’ll contact them to find out why not. We’ll look at what they say when deciding whether to suspend or cancel their appointment as your nominee.

We want to make sure your nominee is acting in your best interests. If we become aware they can no longer fulfill the role, or there is change in a court order, such as removing a guardian, we may suspend or cancel that nominee appointment.

If we cancel a nominee appointment, that person is no longer your nominee from the time we cancel. If we suspend a nominee appointment, the person can’t act on your behalf during the time we’re deciding whether they can continue to be your nominee or not. If we cancel or suspend your nominee, we will stop sending correspondence to them and stop sharing information about you.

We may suspend or cancel a nominee’s appointment if:

we’ve appointed a nominee on our initiative, and you ask us to cancel that appointment. Once you ask us, we have 14 days to decide whether or not to cancel your nominee’s appointment. If we decide to keep the person as your nominee we must send you and your nominee a letter telling you our decision and the reasons for this.
we send a written notice to your nominee, and they respond by telling us that they can’t, or might not be able to help you make decisions and/or do things on your behalf because of a change in their situation. Based on this, we’ll decide if it is appropriate to suspend or cancel your nominee’s appointment. When someone becomes your nominee, they agree to give us certain information if we ask.

If they don’t comply with one of our written notices, we may suspend or cancel their appointment as your nominee. This includes if:

your nominee fails to tell us that they can’t, or might not be able to help you make decisions and/or do things on your behalf because of an event or change in their circumstances
your nominee doesn’t reply to a request from us for information about their use of NDIS funding paid to them on your behalf.

If the nominee was appointed at your request, we will change or cancel the nominee if you ask us to.

If the nominee was appointed on our initiative and you ask us to change or cancel the nominee, we must make a decision within 14 days. We will send you and your nominee a letter if we decide to keep the person as your nominee.

Learn more about when a nominee appointment might be suspended or cancelled.

If you want to change or cancel your nominee, you can contact us . You can also talk to your support coordinator, local area coordinator or planner for further advice.

We may suspend a nominee’s appointment if it’s reasonable to believe your nominee has, or is likely to cause you physical, mental or financial harm.

We would send you and your nominee a copy of the instrument of suspension. We’ll also write to your nominee asking them to give us a statement within 28 days setting out the reasons why their appointment as your nominee should not be cancelled.

If we get a statement from them, we’ll look at what they say, and decide as soon as possible whether or not they can continue to be your nominee. We must make this decision within 14 days after the 28-day suspension period ends.

Once we’ve made our decision, we’ll send a letter to you and your nominee explaining our decision.

If we decide they can continue to be your nominee, the suspension will end and they can continue to be your nominee.

Before we cancel or suspend a nominee appointment, we must think about:

whether the nominee has done something that’s inappropriate or not in line with their duties as a nominee
how the nominee has behaved with you
the results of any changes to your plan
your opinion and the opinions of any person who cares for or supports you
how it will affect you if we suspend or cancel the nominee appointment
whether your nominee has been found guilty of a crime that is reasonably likely to affect their ability to act as your nominee.

We must also look at whether you still need a nominee and think about the reasons you had a nominee appointed.

We must cancel a nominee’s appointment if:

you ask us to, and the nominee was appointed at your request
your nominee writes to us telling us they no longer want to be your nominee.

We must also cancel a nominee’s appointment if:

we have suspended your nominee’s appointment because we have reasonable grounds to believe your nominee has, or may cause you physical, mental or financial harm
we have given your nominee a written notice asking them to give us a statement within 28-days, and your nominee does not respond to our notice within the 28-day period.

Once we’ve made our decision, we’ll send a letter to you and your nominee explaining our decision. If we cancel your nominee’s appointment, we’ll send you both a copy of the instrument of cancellation. When we say instrument, we mean a legal document.

When we look at suspending or cancelling a nominee appointment, we must always think about how your personal and social wellbeing will be supported.

If we cancel or suspend an appointment, we may appoint another person as nominee for a set period of time. The appointment process is the same as other nominee appointments.

If we suspend your nominee’s appointment:

they won’t be able to perform any functions on your behalf as your nominee
we may appoint someone else to be your nominee for a set period of time.

Before we decide to cancel or suspend your nominee’s appointment, we would find out the reason they did or didn’t do what they were supposed to do. In most cases, we wouldn’t suspend or cancel your nominee if they reasonably believed they were doing what you wanted. Or if they reasonably believed what they did, or didn’t do, would promote your personal and social wellbeing.

If we cancel or suspend a nominee, we will stop sending correspondence and stop sharing information with them. We do not disclose information to anyone other than the appointed representatives listed on your record. We will make sure correspondence will be sent to you or another nominee instead.

If you have concerns related to someone acting on your behalf, or receiving correspondence, you can contact us .

If we decide to cancel or suspend your nominee’s appointment, and you’re not happy with our decision, you can ask for our decision to be reviewed.

In either situation, we must give you and your nominee a copy of the instrument of suspension or cancellation.

Similarly, if we decide not to cancel or suspend your nominee’s appointment, and you’re not happy with our decision, you can ask for our decision to be reviewed.

Learn more about how to ask for a decision to be reviewed.

You can also talk to your support coordinator, local area coordinator, planner or contact us for further advice.

Indicates required field

Was this page useful?

Yes

Why?

It was easy to understand

The layout or style made it easy to read

The information was easy to find

Why not?

It was too hard to understand

I couldn’t find the information

The layout or style made it hard to read

The information wasn’t what I was looking for

Tell us more (optional)

When would a nominee appointment be cancelled or suspended?

On this page: