What to do today
1. Find the day you received the decision. Look at the letter or email the NDIA sent you about your access request, your plan or the supports in it. The NDIA must give you written reasons for a reviewable decision, and the letter must say you can ask for a review (National Disability Insurance Scheme Act 2013 (Cth) s 100(1) and (1A)).
2. Ask the NDIA for an internal review within 3 months of receiving the decision (s 100(2)). Someone who had no part in the original decision must look at it again (s 100(5A) and (5B)). You can ask:
- by phone on 1800 800 110
- with the NDIA's request for a review of a decision form (Word or PDF), or a letter to the Chief Executive Officer, NDIA, GPO Box 700 Canberra ACT 2601
- with an online enquiry to the NDIA, or in person at an NDIA office
A phone or in-person request is a valid request. The NDIA must write down the details and the date you asked (s 100(3) and (4)). Keep your own note of the date, the time and who you spoke to.
Say what decision you expected, why you think the NDIA got it wrong, and whether you will send new evidence such as reports from your doctor or therapists. If the NDIA asks you for more information, its page says you have up to 28 days to send it and you can ask for more time.
There is no fee. Nothing in the Act charges for internal review, and the Tribunal charges no application fee to review an NDIA decision.
The wait: the NDIA must decide within 90 days of receiving your request, unless the NDIS rules set a different period (s 100(6A)). The NDIA says it aims to finish internal reviews within 60 days.
The decision still applies while it is reviewed. Asking for a review does not stop it taking effect (s 100(7)). If a new plan or a change to your supports comes in while the review is under way, the review automatically covers the new supports too (s 101(2)).
This is legal information about the national NDIS law, not legal advice.
After internal review: the Administrative Review Tribunal
The internal review decision will confirm, change or replace the original decision (s 100(6)). If you still disagree, you (or someone on your behalf) can apply to the Administrative Review Tribunal (s 103). The Tribunal looks at the whole decision again on the evidence, including new evidence you get after the NDIA decided.
You have 28 days from the day you received the internal review decision. Apply online, by calling 1800 228 333, by emailing reviews@art.gov.au, by letter, or at a Tribunal office. Include a copy of the decision, a copy of your internal review request, and brief reasons why you think the decision is wrong.
There is no application fee for a review of a decision made by the NDIA. Decisions of the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commissioner are different: they carry the standard $1,195 fee. See the Tribunal's fees page.
Missed the 28 days? Apply anyway, in writing, and explain why you are late. The Tribunal can extend the time, even after it has run out, if that is reasonable in all the circumstances (Administrative Review Tribunal Act 2024 (Cth) s 19). It sends your request to the NDIA, which has 14 days to say whether it objects.
Usually the Tribunal can only look at a decision the NDIA has already reviewed internally. But the Tribunal says that if the NDIA has not finished your internal review within 90 days of your request, it may be able to review the decision without waiting. Send a copy of your internal review request with your application.
After you apply, the NDIA must send you and the Tribunal the documents on its file that matter to your case, which the Tribunal says usually happens within 28 days.
When the NDIA does not decide at all
Some NDIA silences count as a refusal, and that refusal goes to internal review automatically, so you do not have to ask (s 100(5)(b)):
- An access request. If the NDIA does not decide within 90 days (or a shorter period set by the NDIS rules), you are taken to have been found not to meet the access criteria (ss 20(2) and 21(3)).
- A request to change your plan. If the NDIA does not decide, or tell you it needs more time, within 21 days of receiving your request, it is taken to have decided not to vary the plan (s 47A(4) and (5)).
- A request for a plan reassessment. If the NDIA does not decide within 90 days of receiving your request, it is taken to have decided not to reassess the plan (s 48(3) and (4)).
The NDIA must still send you a notice of that deemed decision (s 21(3) note), and the 90-day clock for the automatic review starts the day after the deadline was missed (s 100(6A)(b)(ii)).
Which decisions can be reviewed
Only decisions listed in the table in s 99 of the Act (or made reviewable by the NDIS rules under s 99(2)) can go through internal review and then to the Tribunal. The ones participants most often challenge are:
- that you do not meet the access criteria, or that you are no longer a participant (s 99 items 1 and 3)
- approving the statement of participant supports in your plan, which is where the funded supports are set out (item 4)
- varying your plan, refusing to vary it, or refusing to reassess it (items 6 to 6C)
- whether you are a high support needs participant (item 6BA)
- appointing, cancelling or refusing to cancel a plan or correspondence nominee, and decisions about who acts for a child participant (items 17 to 22)
- recovering, refusing to write off or refusing to waive an NDIS debt (items 27 to 33)
Your decision letter should say whether the decision is reviewable. If a decision is not on the list, internal review and the Tribunal are not available, and a complaint is the route. The Tribunal cannot investigate complaints about the NDIA or change the law.
Getting help
You can run your own internal review and Tribunal case. The Tribunal says its process is informal, and you can deal with it directly or name someone in writing to represent you, such as an advocate, a family member or a lawyer.
The government-funded NDIS Appeals Program gives free help from a disability advocate once your internal review is finished: explaining the process, preparing documents and coming to Tribunal conferences and hearings. Legal Aid in your state or territory decides who gets funded legal representation under the same program.
Side routes
A complaint about the safety or quality of supports from an NDIS provider or worker goes to the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission (1800 035 544). That is a separate system from reviewing the NDIA's decisions about your access or plan, and it will not change your plan.
To see the documents the NDIA relied on, you can make a freedom of information request. If that is refused or ignored, see Your FOI request was refused: how to get it reviewed.
Worked example
Priya's new plan is approved and the NDIA's email arrives on Wednesday 4 March 2026. Her therapy supports are much lower than her therapists recommended. She has until Thursday 4 June 2026 (3 months) to ask for an internal review.
She calls the NDIA on Monday 16 March 2026 and asks for a review, then emails letters from her occupational therapist and physiotherapist. The NDIA must decide within 90 days beginning that day, so by Saturday 13 June 2026. Its own 60-day aim would be Thursday 14 May 2026.
The internal review decision arrives on Thursday 28 May 2026 and confirms the original supports. Priya's 28 days to apply to the Tribunal end on Thursday 25 June 2026. She applies online on Wednesday 10 June, pays no fee, and contacts an NDIS Appeals Program advocate for help preparing for the first conference.
Had the NDIA said nothing by 13 June, she could have applied to the Tribunal after that date and sent a copy of her 16 March request, and the Tribunal says it may then be able to review the decision without waiting.