On this page:

• What is a plan variation?
• What is a plan reassessment?

Your NDIS plan has information about you and your goals and aspirations. We call this the ‘participant’s statement of goals and aspirations.’  Your plan also has information about any supports we’ll give you, the supports we’ll pay for and how these funds and the other parts of your plan will be managed. We call this the ‘statement of participant supports.’  

Learn more about creating your plan.

Every plan must include a reassessment date. We need to look at your plan with you by this date and decide if any changes are needed. You can ask us to change your plan at any time. We can also decide to change your plan at any time if we think we need to. You don’t have to wait until the reassessment date. We’ll work with you to change your plan.

In certain situations we can change your plan by updating part of your current plan. We call this a plan variation. Or we can decide to approve your new plan after a plan reassessment. We previously called this a plan review. Both the decision to vary your plan and the decision to approve a new plan are reviewable decisions.

If you are not happy with a decision we have made in relation to your plan, then the best pathway is to seek an internal review of our decision. A plan change is not the right pathway to seek a review of a decision we have made.

Learn more about the difference between plan variations, plan reassessments and internal reviews.

What is a plan variation?

There are some situations where your current plan can be varied without the need for a plan reassessment. This means we look at just part of your current plan and make the changes in this plan and don’t need create a new plan. We call this a varied plan. The law for the NDIS tells us what these situations are.  If we decide to vary your plan we’ll prepare the varied plan with you. 

We can vary your plan if you ask us to or if we think a plan variation is required.  When you ask for a variation, we call it a plan variation on the ‘participant’s initiative’. When we decide to make a variation, we call this a plan variation on the ‘CEO’s own initiative.’ The varied plan we approve may be different to what you ask for. We’ll talk to you about this when we’re preparing your plan.

If the plan change is about funding in your plan, the varied plan still must meet the NDIS funding criteria.

Your plan can be varied in in the following situations.