Asking for a Plan Reassessment

What actually changes on 27 August

Before this date, other people in your life could ask the NDIA to bring your plan reassessment forward. Now the request has to come from you or from the person formally appointed to act for you.

The NDIA puts it plainly: only participants, plan nominees or child representatives can ask for a plan reassessment before the scheduled date.

This is not a change to what you can get. It is a change to who signs the request. Your support coordinator, your occupational therapist and your support workers are all still part of this — they gather the evidence, they write the reports, they help you explain what has changed. They just cannot be the one to lodge it.

Who can ask, and who can help

When you are allowed to ask

You can ask for a reassessment before your scheduled date when there has been a significant and ongoing change to either of these:

• Your functional capacity and support needs — what you can do day to day, and how much help you need to do it.
• Your living, education, work or informal support arrangements — where you live, what you are studying or working at, or the unpaid support around you from family and friends.

Both words matter. Significant means it makes a real difference to how your plan works. Ongoing means it is not a temporary patch — a few hard weeks is not the test.

Examples that usually fit

• Your condition has progressed and you now need help with things you used to manage alone.
• A parent or partner who has been providing unpaid support can no longer do it, or not to the same extent.
• You have come out of hospital and cannot go back to the home you were living in.
• Your current home no longer works for you — access, safety, or the people you live with.
• You are moving from a group home or from the family home and need a different kind of housing.

Examples that usually do not

• You have used up part of your budget faster than expected.
• You want to change providers. That does not need a reassessment.
• A short illness or a temporary gap in your supports.

Reassessment or variation — which one do you need?

These are two different things and people mix them up constantly.

A plan variation

A change to part of your existing plan. Updating your goals, changing how your plan is managed, correcting details. The NDIA does not usually need evidence for these.

A plan reassessment

The NDIA looks at your plan again and can make a new one. This is what you need when your support needs themselves have changed. Expect to provide reports from the health professionals and therapists involved in your care.

If you are not sure which one applies, say what has changed and let the NDIA work out the category. You do not have to name the process correctly to be heard.

How to ask

1. Get your evidence together first

   Contact the NDIA once, with everything, rather than three times with fragments. What helps:

   • Reports from treating health professionals, therapists or support workers
   • An occupational therapist's assessment, if your home or your daily function is part of what changed
   • Dates — when the change happened, or when it started
   • A short written summary in your own words of what is different now and what is not working

2. Contact the NDIA

   Any of these work. Use whichever you find easiest:

   • Phone 1800 800 110, Monday to Friday, 8am to 8pm local time
   • Talk to your my NDIS contact, if you have one
   • Submit an enquiry through the NDIS Service Hub online
   • Complete the change of details or change of situation form — available as a PDF or a Word document
   • Post the form to NDIA, GPO Box 700, Canberra ACT 2601
   • Visit an NDIS office in person

3. Say what changed, then say what you need

   In that order. Start with the change in your life, because that is what the decision turns on. Then say what you think your plan needs to look like as a result. If housing is part of it, say so directly — "my current home no longer works for me and I need to look at other options" is a clearer sentence than anything more technical.

4. Write down what happened

   The date you made the request, who you spoke to, what you sent, and what they said would happen next. Under the new rules, participants are expected to keep their records for three years and nominees for five. It also means that if the request stalls, you can say exactly when it went in.

How long it will take

Different NDIS pages quote different numbers, which is confusing when you are waiting. Here is what each one actually refers to.

The practical version: if you are hoping to move into a different home, count backwards from when you want to move and start the conversation months rather than weeks ahead. The phrase "once we have the information and evidence we need" is doing a lot of work in that 28 days — which is why step one is gathering evidence.

If housing is what you are working towards

Housing decisions rest on evidence about your home and living needs, not on how strongly the request is worded. A few things worth knowing before you start.

• An occupational therapist's assessment usually sits at the centre of it. If you do not have a current one, that is often the first practical step rather than the request itself.
• Say what is not working about where you live now. Access, safety, the people you live with, whether you can get to the things that matter to you. Specifics carry more than general dissatisfaction.
• Looking at homes and asking for a reassessment are separate. You can look, ask questions, view a home and work out what suits you before anything is decided about funding. Nobody needs to commit to anything to have that conversation.
• Your housing and your supports are two different agreements. Who you rent your home from and who provides your day-to-day support do not have to be tied together, and choosing one does not decide the other.

What has not changed

• Your scheduled plan reassessment still happens as planned. This change is only about asking for one early.
• You can still ask for a plan variation at any time.
• If the NDIA makes a decision about your plan you disagree with, you can still ask for an internal review of that decision.
• Everyone who supports you can still support you. The change is about who lodges the request, not who is involved.

Where to get help with this

• Your my NDIS contact — the person or team already assigned to your plan. Start here if you have one.
• NDIS on 1800 800 110 — Monday to Friday, 8am to 8pm local time.
• ndis.gov.au — the official pages on changing your plan and on plan reassessments.
• Your support coordinator — for help working out what evidence you need and how to describe what has changed.
• A disability advocate — independent, free, and useful if you feel you are not being heard. Advocacy organisations operate in every state.