There are processes we have to follow to review our decisions. This is called doing an internal review.
There are also processes the Administrative Appeals Tribunal need to follow when reviewing our decisions. We call this an external review.
First, we need to make the decision. You can’t ask for a review before we make the decision. We call this the original decision.
For example, we could decide you’re not eligible for the NDIS. Or if you’re a participant, we could decide to approve your plan.
If you don’t think our original decision is right, you may be able to ask for an internal review. This is where one of our staff, not involved in the original decision, checks if we made the right decision the first time.
If you don’t agree with the internal review decision, you may then ask the Administrative Appeals Tribunal for an external review. This is where the Tribunal checks if the internal review decision was the right decision.
The Tribunal is separate to us, so external reviews are independent from our decisions. You can’t have an external review until we’ve done the internal review.
What decisions can be reviewed?
The NDIS law tells us what decisions can be reviewed.
Many decisions are reviewable. Some of the common ones include when we decide:
- you’re not eligible for the NDIS
- you’re no longer eligible for the NDIS
- to approve your plan, which includes approving the supports we fund in your plan
- not to do a plan reassessment
- not to do a plan variation
- to vary your plan
- if you need a plan nominee or a different child representative .
If you’re a participant and don’t agree with your plan, you can ask us to review some parts of your plan. We can review:
- what NDIS-funded supports we include in your plan
- how we describe those supports
- how your funding is managed
- how long your plan goes for
- how your plan has been varied.
Learn more about how we create and approve your plan.
If the original decision we make is reviewable, we’ll write to you to let you know about our decision and the reasons for our decision.
The reasons for our decision are included in the letter we send you when we make our decision. When we say ‘you’, we mean only those people who are directly affected by our decision.
If you’re not sure if our decision is reviewable, you can look at What decisions can we review? for a list of all the decisions we can review.
What’s the difference between an internal review and other ways to change your plan?
You can ask for an internal review if you don’t agree with a decision we make, such as our decision to approve your plan.
The laws for the NDIS changed on 1 July 2022. From 1 July 2022, a plan review is called a plan reassessment.
From 1 July 2022, if you want us to make changes to your plan, you can ask for either a plan reassessment or a plan variation. We can only vary your plan in limited circumstances.
Learn more about how we deal with plan reviews requested before 1 July 2022 and the internal review of those decisions.
Learn more about plan reassessments and plan variations.