Changing your NDIS plan
Life changes, and sometimes a plan has to change with it. This guide explains the two ways a plan changes, who can ask, how decision reviews work, and the difference between a review and a complaint.
- Variation or reassessment: which you need
- Review deadlines from official sources
- Free PDF with a printable checklist
General information only — check ndis.gov.au for your situation. Image is illustrative.
Does your plan actually need to change?
If the change is short-term, you may be able to use your current plan flexibly, because flexible budgets can be used across categories in the same budget. Talk to your my NDIS contact, support coordinator or recovery coach about what’s changed.
If the change is longer-term or permanent, and your treating health professionals recommend different supports, you can ask the NDIA to change your plan. For other changes, like a new address or phone number, you don’t need a plan change. Call 1800 800 110, use the service hub, talk to your my NDIS contact or visit a local office.
Variation or reassessment?
Plan variation
Changes part of your current plan: your goals, reassessment date, statement of supports or how your funding is managed. It can also fix errors or add crisis or emergency funding. You, your nominee or child representative can ask at any time, or give consent for someone else, like a support coordinator, to ask. Use the plan variation request form. The NDIA says it will decide within 21 days once it has the information, and send a varied plan within 7 days.
What is a plan variation →Plan reassessment
Replaces your plan with a new one when there’s been a significant and ongoing change in your functional capacity and support needs, or in your living, education, work or informal support arrangements. Only you, your plan nominee or child representative can ask, using the plan reassessment request form with recent evidence. You can keep using your current plan while the NDIA decides.
What is a plan reassessment →Since 27 August 2026, when you ask for a reassessment, the NDIA has up to 90 days to decide whether to vary or reassess your plan. If it hasn’t decided by then, the request is treated as refused and you can ask for a review. If you’ve experienced fraud, or you’re in a crisis or emergency, you can ask for a plan variation. Using all your funding early isn’t considered an emergency by itself.
How to ask for a change
Talk it through
Speak to your my NDIS contact or support coordinator about what’s changed and whether your plan can be used flexibly first.
Choose the right form
The plan variation request form for small changes. The plan reassessment request form for significant and ongoing changes.
Gather evidence
For a reassessment, include recent evidence, usually from within 4 months, from treating health professionals, therapists or support workers showing the change.
Send it in
Through the NDIS service hub, by post to NDIA, GPO Box 700, Canberra ACT 2601, or in person at your local office.
Get the decision
The NDIA will vary your plan, create a new plan, or decide not to change it. If it doesn’t change it, it explains why.
When you disagree with a decision
Many NDIA decisions are reviewable. Common ones include a decision that you’re not eligible, the approval of your plan and the supports in it, and a decision not to vary or reassess your plan.
Ask for an explanation
Call 1800 800 110, use the service hub or talk to your my NDIS contact. The NDIA can explain why it made the decision.
Internal review
Ask within 3 months of receiving the decision, by phone, the service hub, in person, by letter or on the request for a review of a decision form. If asked for extra documents, you have up to 28 days. The NDIA aims to finish within 60 days.
Administrative Review Tribunal
If you disagree with the internal review, apply to the Tribunal within 28 days. There’s no application fee for NDIA decisions. Phone 1800 228 333 or apply online.
Apply to the Tribunal →Not every decision can be reviewed. The NDIA says the budget reductions that began on 1 October 2026 aren’t a reviewable decision. You can still ask for a variation or reassessment if your needs have changed. How to request a review.
A complaint is different from a review
A review asks for a decision to be looked at again. A complaint is about how something was done. Where it goes depends on who it’s about.
Service, staff or process
Call 1800 800 110 (Monday to Friday, 8am to 7pm), use the online feedback form, email enquiries@ndis.gov.au or visit an office. The NDIA aims to acknowledge complaints within 1 day and resolve them within 21 days. If you’re still unhappy, the Commonwealth Ombudsman is on 1300 362 072.
How to give feedback →Quality or safety of supports
Raise it with the provider first if you feel safe to. If not, or if it isn’t resolved, contact the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission on 1800 035 544 or online. In an emergency, call 000.
Report to the NDIS Commission →Tell us directly
If something about our service isn’t right, we want to hear it. You can also go straight to the NDIS Commission at any time.
Kinship complaints and feedback →Your plan change checklist
Use this when something in your life changes. The PDF prints it with tick boxes.
- Write down what’s changed, when, and whether it’s short-term or ongoing
- Ask your my NDIS contact if your current plan can be used flexibly
- Small change: use the plan variation request form
- Significant, ongoing change: use the plan reassessment request form
- Gather recent evidence, usually from within the last 4 months
- Send the form and evidence via the service hub, post or in person
- Note the date you sent it. The NDIA has up to 90 days to decide
- Disagree with a decision? Ask for an explanation, then an internal review within 3 months
- Disagree with the internal review? Apply to the Tribunal within 28 days
- Complaint about a provider? Contact the NDIS Commission on 1800 035 544
Questions people ask
What’s the difference between a plan variation and a plan reassessment?
A variation is a small change to part of your current plan. A reassessment replaces your plan with a new one when there’s been a significant and ongoing change in your situation or support needs.
Who can ask for a plan reassessment?
Only the participant, their plan nominee or child representative (or guardian). You can’t give consent for someone else, like a provider, to ask for a reassessment on your behalf.
How long does the NDIA take to decide?
For a variation, the NDIA says it will decide within 21 days once it has the information it needs. Since 27 August 2026, when you ask for a reassessment, it has up to 90 days to decide whether to vary or reassess your plan. If it hasn’t decided by then, the request is treated as refused and you can ask for a review.
My funding is running out early. Is that an emergency?
Not by itself. The NDIA says using all your funding before the end of your plan or funding period isn’t considered an emergency on its own. Talk to your my NDIS contact about your options.
How long do I have to ask for a review?
Ask for an internal review within 3 months of receiving the decision. If you disagree with the outcome, you have 28 days to apply to the Administrative Review Tribunal.
Can I ask for a review of the October 2026 budget reductions?
No. The NDIA says the budget reductions aren’t a reviewable decision. You can still ask for a variation or reassessment if there’s been a significant and ongoing change in your situation.
Where do I complain about a provider?
Talk to the provider first if you feel safe to. You can also contact the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission on 1800 035 544 or online, at any time.
If your needs change, tell us early
Kinship is a registered NDIS provider (4-GWVHCEY). We don’t decide plan changes; the NDIA does. What we do is keep you and your family updated as standard, and talk with you about what your current plan allows when something changes, so nothing gets missed.
If you’re not happy with any part of our service, tell us. You’ll get a straight answer.
Daily living and personal care
Help at home with the routines that make a day work.
Daily living support →Community participation and life skills
Getting out, trying things and building skills, with the same worker every visit.
Community participation →High intensity support
Complex bowel care, catheter care, wound care, PEG feeding, medication management, dementia and behaviour support.
High intensity support →More plain-English guides
Each one has a free PDF you can print, save or send to family. Swipe to see them all.
How to apply for the NDIS
Who can apply, the evidence that counts and the five steps to lodge an application.
Read the guide →After you apply for the NDIS
Decision timeframes, your first plan, and what to do if the answer is no.
Read the guide →Preparing for your planning meeting
Goals, a typical week, informal supports and the questions worth asking.
Read the guide →Understanding your NDIS plan
Support budgets, flexible and stated funding, and the 2026–27 rule changes.
Read the guide →Choosing an NDIS provider
What to ask, how to check registration and what a service agreement should cover.
Read the guide →Aged care help at home
How government-funded aged care at home works, starting with My Aged Care.
Read the guide →Continence support
Plain-English information on continence support and products.
Read the guide →Complaints and your rights
How to raise a concern with a provider, the NDIA or the NDIS Commission.
Read the guide →Looking after yourself as a carer
Practical ideas and where carers can find support of their own.
Read the guide →Sources
Every rule, timeframe and phone number on this page was checked against these official pages in October 2026. NDIS rules are changing under the Securing the NDIS for Future Generations Act 2026, and some ndis.gov.au pages are still being updated. If anything here differs from what the NDIA tells you, the NDIA’s advice for your situation wins.
- NDIS: Guide to changing your plan
- NDIS: How to ask for a change to your plan
- NDIS: What is a plan variation
- NDIS: What is a plan reassessment
- NDIS: Guide to your next plan
- NDIS: What is a check-in
- NDIS: How to request a review of a decision
- NDIS: What is a decision review
- Administrative Review Tribunal: NDIS decisions
- NDIS news: Changes to support budgets from 1 October (1 October 2026)
- Department of Health, Disability and Ageing: About the changes to the NDIS (updated 2 October 2026)
- NDIS: How to give feedback
- NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission: Report an issue or make a complaint
Something changed?
Call us and we’ll talk it through. We’ll tell you plainly what we can help with.
Registered NDIS provider 4-GWVHCEY. General information only — check ndis.gov.au for your situation. How to check any provider’s registration.