We’ll work with you to change your plan. We’ll think about the type of change your plan needs to meet your disability support needs. We’ll let you know what type of plan change we’re doing, a plan reassessment or plan variation, and what that means.
Usually, we’ll do a plan change either in person or over the phone. It depends on what suits you best. You can ask a family member, friend, advocate, or other support person to be involved in your plan change.
Everyone’s plan changes are different. When we’re working with you to change your plan, we may look at different things. This will depend on what type of change we’re doing and the sort of changes we’re making.
Until we have finished updating our computer systems, new and reassessed plans completed in our new computer system will go for one year.
Sometimes when we’re doing a plan reassessment or plan variation we may also check to see if you’re still eligible for the NDIS. We call this process an eligibility reassessment. This is a normal part of the plan reassessment and variation process.
Learn more about when you’re no longer eligible for the NDIS.
What happens during a plan variation?
When we do a plan variation, we’ll work with you to understand how your situation has changed. We may be able to make changes to your plan without doing a full plan reassessment. We think about the information you have provided and work with you to make any necessary changes to your current plan.
All NDIS supports in your varied plan must meet the NDIS funding criteria. This includes the NDIS supports that were already in your plan.
When we vary your plan, we’ll let you know the date when the variation to your plan starts. This can only be on or after the day we decide to vary your plan.
What happens during a plan reassessment?
When we do a plan reassessment, we must complete the reassessment and decide to either:
- make changes to vary your plan without doing a full reassessment
- prepare and approve a new plan.
If we vary your plan, your plan will only include a total funding amount, funding component amounts and funding periods if they are already in your plan.
If we prepare and approve a new plan because of a reassessment, your new plan will include a total funding amount, funding component amount(s) and funding periods. This is because of changes to NDIS laws.
When we do a plan reassessment, we think about all your information including, your goals, situation, and support needs. We reassess all the supports you require to meet your disability support needs. Some of your supports may no longer be required, while others may increase or change.
We’ll usually look at how you’ve been using your NDIS supports and how well your previous plans worked for you. We also look at if you have spent your funding on NDIS supports in line with your plan. This will help us decide if the NDIS supports are still working for you.
If you haven’t used all the funding by your plan reassessment date, it doesn’t mean we’ll reduce the funding in your next plan. There may be very good reasons why you weren’t able to use the funding.
We might talk about any problems you have using your funding and support you may need to get help with this. If you consistently don’t use your NDIS funding, we think about whether the supports really do meet the NDIS funding criteria. For example, they may not be effective and beneficial for you if you’re not actually using them.
Your needs and situation will most likely change over time. This means it’s likely your NDIS funding will change over time. For example, your disability support needs might increase, and we might consider funding more NDIS supports.
Or we might fund NDIS supports to help you build your skills in a particular area. Once you have built those skills, you won’t need that funding anymore. So, we probably won’t include that funding in your next plan. NDIS supports to build your skills may have met the NDIS funding criteria before, but they might not meet the funding criteria for you in the future.
All NDIS supports in your new plan must meet all NDIS funding criteria.
What happens if we need more information?
Sometimes we may ask you for more information or an assessment to help us change your plan. This will help us work out your support needs when we change your plan. We’ll ask for different types of information for different types of supports.
We might ask you for:
- a new assessment and report, if your last assessment was a long time ago and doesn’t tell us about your current support needs. For example, an occupational therapist may write a letter to explain why you need a specific type of wheelchair
- more information about the types of supports you need and how often you need it, from a suitably qualified person. This could be your doctor or psychologist
- information from a provider about how you have progressed towards your goals.
The most important information we gather about what NDIS supports to include in your plan comes from you. We collect this information during check-ins. You can also give us this information anytime there is a change in your situation.
We must give you a reasonable opportunity to give us the information. We’ll review the information you give us to make sure the NDIS supports meet the NDIS funding criteria for you. The sooner you can give us the information, the sooner we can change and approve your plan.
In some situations, we may need to approve your plan before you get an assessment or give us information. If this happens, we may then do a CEO initiated plan change after we receive the reports. This could be a plan variation or a plan reassessment.
For example, we might approve your plan, so you have funding for urgent self-care supports. We could then do a CEO initiated plan change afterwards, once you have the assessments and reports for other supports, such as assistive technology.