NDIS Plan Reassessments: Understanding the changes starting on 27 August 2026

There are three key changes that participants, families, support coordinators and allied health professionals need to understand.

1. Who can request a plan reassessment is changing

From 27 August, an unscheduled plan reassessment can only be requested by:

• the participant

• the participant’s plan nominee

• for a child, their child representative.

This means a Support Coordinator, allied health professional, advocate or other provider can no longer make the request on the participant’s behalf, unless they are also the participant’s formal nominee or child representative.

Of course, providers can still play an important role in helping a participant understand their options, gathering evidence and assisting them to prepare their request. But the request itself needs to come from one of the people specified in the legislation.

2. The NDIA will have much longer to make a decision

Previously, when a participant requested a plan reassessment, the NDIA had 21 days to decide how to respond.

From 27 August, this increases to 90 days.

Importantly, this is 90 days to decide whether or not to conduct the reassessment. It is not necessarily 90 days until the participant receives a new plan.

If the NDIA does not make a decision within the 90-day period, it is taken to have decided not to conduct the reassessment. It can then be reviewed as a reviewable decision - S100.

For participants experiencing significant changes in their circumstances, this is obviously an important change. Three months can be a very long time when existing supports are no longer meeting someone's needs.

3. There is now a higher threshold for requesting an unscheduled reassessment

This is perhaps the most important change.

The new legislation introduces specific conditions that must be met before a participant can request an unscheduled reassessment.

Broadly, there must have been a significant change to the participant's ongoing disability-related support needs.

The change must result from an alteration in either:

• the participant's functional capacity; and/or

• their personal or environmental circumstances.

Where the change relates to functional capacity, there are additional requirements, including that the change is significant and ongoing, relates to an existing or new/acquired impairment for which the participant meets the relevant NDIS disability or early intervention requirements, and has resulted in a substantial reduction in their ability to perform daily activities.

Where the change relates to personal or environmental circumstances, there must be a significant and ongoing alteration to the participant's:

• living arrangements

• education arrangements

• work arrangements; or

• network of informal support.

So what does “significant and ongoing” look like in practice?

An example: a change in informal supports

Consider a participant who lives with a parent who provides a substantial amount of informal support.

Scenario A – significant and ongoing change

The participant's parent has been their primary informal carer for many years. Due to their own increasing care needs, the parent permanently moves into residential aged care and can no longer provide that support.

The participant's informal support network has therefore changed in a way that is both significant and ongoing.

If this results in a significant change to the participant's ongoing disability-related support needs, this may meet the new threshold for requesting an unscheduled plan reassessment.

Scenario B – significant, but temporary

Now consider the same participant, but instead their parent requires surgery and will be unable to provide their usual informal support for eight weeks while they recover.

The impact on the participant may still be significant. They may temporarily need additional assistance with personal care, meals, community access or other daily activities.

However, the change to their informal support arrangements is not expected to be ongoing. Their parent is expected to recover and resume their usual caring role.

In this situation, a full plan reassessment may not be the appropriate pathway.

Instead, the participant may request a plan variation to respond to the temporary change.

The NDIA has specifically confirmed that participants will continue to be able to request plan changes, including for short-term or urgent changes, through plan variations.

Why this distinction matters

We are going to need to become much clearer about what we are asking the NDIA to do.

Not every change in circumstances will warrant a full plan reassessment.

When supporting a participant, it will be important to ask:

Is this a significant and ongoing change to the person's disability-related support needs?

Or:

Is this a temporary or urgent situation that requires the existing plan to be varied?

For OTs and other allied health professionals providing evidence, this also means being specific.

Rather than simply stating that a participant has experienced a “change in circumstances”, our evidence may need to clearly describe:

• what has changed

• when it changed

• whether the change is expected to be ongoing

• how it affects the participant's disability-related support needs

• where relevant, how functional capacity has changed

• where relevant, how the participant's living, education, work or informal support arrangements have changed

• why the existing plan is no longer sufficient, and

• whether the evidence supports a reassessment or a more targeted variation.
  
  

One final point

These changes also apply to requests for reassessment made before 27 August but not yet decided by that date.

That is an important transitional provision and one that participants and those supporting them need to be aware of.

As with many of the NDIS reforms currently being implemented, we will need to see how these provisions are applied in practice.

But for now, the key message is this:

Significant + ongoing change → consider whether a plan reassessment is required.

Short-term or urgent change → consider whether a plan variation is the more appropriate pathway.

And from 27 August, if a plan reassessment is required, make sure the request is made by the participant, their plan nominee or child representative. And be prepared for the NDIA to have up to 90 days to decide whether to conduct it.