How to prepare for an NDIS plan reassessment

A plan reassessment is the NDIA process for creating a new plan when your situation or support needs have changed, or when your reassessment date is approaching. Preparation does not guarantee a particular funding outcome. It helps the NDIA understand your current needs, goals, evidence and how the existing plan has worked. This guide follows the current NDIS preparation guidance.

Scheduled vs unscheduled reviews

Most participants have a scheduled review at the end of their plan period, typically every 12 months. The NDIA will contact you (usually by letter) when your plan is approaching its end date to start the process.

An unscheduled review (sometimes called a mid-plan review) can be requested at any time if your circumstances have changed significantly — a new or changed diagnosis, a major shift in your support needs, a housing change, or a situation where your current funding clearly cannot meet your needs. You cannot simply ask for more money because your budget ran low; you need to show that something has genuinely changed.

Start preparing about 8 weeks out

The most common mistake is leaving review preparation to the last fortnight. By then, there is not enough time to gather provider reports, request allied health letters, or document your unmet needs properly. Eight weeks gives you enough runway to do it properly.

If you have a support coordinator, schedule a review preparation session at the 8-week mark. That session should result in a clear list of what evidence is needed, who is gathering it, and what your goals for the new plan are.

What evidence to gather

The NDIA makes funding decisions based on evidence of your functional impact — how your disability affects your daily life — and what supports are reasonable and necessary to address that impact. The following types of evidence carry the most weight.

Progress notes and provider reports

Ask your support workers, support coordinator, and any other current providers to write a brief report summarising what supports were delivered, how they were used, and what outcomes they contributed to. A good provider report is specific: not “participant was supported with daily activities” but “participant required two-person assistance with morning personal care three times per week due to fatigue and reduced upper-limb mobility.”

Allied health and treating professional letters

Letters from occupational therapists, psychologists, GPs, and other treating professionals are highly influential. They should speak to your functional capacity — what you can and cannot do independently — and connect that directly to the supports you are requesting. Generic letters that describe a diagnosis without linking it to function are much less useful.

What is working and what is not

Write down (or ask your coordinator to help you document) what supports have made a genuine difference and why, and what gaps remain. Be specific: “I was unable to access community activities in the third quarter because I ran out of community participation funding in October” is more useful than “my funding was not enough.” Document unmet needs with examples, dates if you have them, and the impact on your life.

Your goals for the next plan

The NDIA funds supports that are “reasonable and necessary” to help you pursue your goals. Come to the review with clear, specific goals. Vague goals (“to be more independent”) attract vague funding decisions. Specific goals (“to be able to use public transport independently to attend weekly employment training”) give the NDIA something to fund against.

At the planning meeting

The planning meeting is usually a phone or video call with an NDIA planner or Local Area Coordinator (LAC). You can bring a support person, nominee, or your support coordinator. The coordinator cannot speak on your behalf about your lived experience, but they can help you explain your support needs clearly and make sure nothing important is missed.

Before the meeting, review your current plan line by line. Know which budgets you used fully, which you did not use (and why), and which you ran out of before the year ended. Running out of a budget is one of the clearest signals that more funding is needed — document when it ran out and what you went without as a result.

What a support coordinator does in a review

A good support coordinator treats review preparation as one of their most important responsibilities. The work includes: gathering provider reports, writing a coordination summary that describes how the plan was implemented and what was not achievable within the current budget, identifying unmet needs with evidence, and attending the planning meeting to support you through the conversation.

If you do not currently have support coordination funded and your plan is complex, consider requesting it as part of your next plan. A coordinator who prepares well for reviews consistently achieves better outcomes than participants who navigate the process alone. Review preparation is just one part of the role — our plain-English guide to what a support coordinator does walks through the rest.

For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander participants, Aboriginal support coordination brings additional value at review time — an understanding of community context, cultural obligations, and the barriers that affect NDIS engagement for First Nations participants, which a coordinator can articulate to the NDIA on your behalf.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Starting too late. Evidence takes time to gather. Eight weeks minimum; twelve is better for complex plans.
• Submitting a generic allied health letter. A letter that describes a diagnosis without linking it to functional impact and support needs carries little weight.
• Not documenting unmet needs. If you went without a support because you ran out of funding, document it with dates and impact. This is your evidence for why the budget needs to increase.
• Accepting the first outcome without question. If your plan review outcome does not reflect what you asked for and you have the evidence to support your request, you have the right to an internal review.
• Not bringing support to the planning meeting. You are allowed — and it is advisable — to have your coordinator, a family member, or a nominee with you.

Frequently asked questions