Plan reassessment

What is an NDIS plan reassessment?

A plan reassessment is when the NDIA looks at a participant's whole NDIS plan to decide whether it still meets their disability support needs, and then either varies the plan or replaces it with a new one. Most reassessments are scheduled: the plan sets a reassessment date and the NDIA must finish the reassessment before then. A participant, their plan nominee or a child's representative can also ask for an unscheduled reassessment when their support needs have changed significantly and for the long term.

"Plan reassessment" is the legal term in the NDIS Act 2013 (sections 48 to 49B). Many people still say "plan review", the name used before the 2022 amendments to the Act. Today a "review" usually means something different: an internal review of a decision you disagree with. Mixing the two up is one of the most common sources of confusion, so this page uses "reassessment" for a new look at the plan and "review" only for challenging a decision.

A reassessment matters to everyone around the participant:

• Participants and families get a chance to update goals, add supports that are now needed and remove ones that aren't.
• Support coordinators usually help gather evidence and prepare the participant for the planning conversation.
• Providers may be asked for progress reports, and a new plan can change the budgets, funding periods and management type they bill against.

How a plan reassessment works

The NDIS Act gives the NDIA three routes into a reassessment. Whatever the route, the outcome is the same: the NDIA must complete the reassessment and then either vary the current plan under section 47A or prepare a new plan with the participant (section 48(7)).

Scheduled reassessment

Every plan includes a reassessment date, or the circumstances in which it must be reassessed. Under section 49, the NDIA must complete the reassessment before the plan's reassessment date. In practice the NDIA, a local area coordinator or an early childhood partner contacts the participant beforehand for a check-in about how the plan is working. The NDIA can also change a reassessment date through a plan variation, for example to bring it forward or push it back.

Reassessment the NDIA starts itself

The NDIA can reassess a plan at any time on its own initiative (section 48(1)), and must reassess in any circumstances the plan itself specifies (section 49A). It must tell the participant when it decides to do this.

Reassessment the participant asks for

An unscheduled reassessment can be requested by the participant, their plan nominee, or, for a child, the person who acts for the child. The request must use the NDIA's approved form, the Plan reassessment request form, and include the information and documents the NDIA asks for. If it doesn't, the NDIA is not required to decide the request. The NDIA's page on what a plan reassessment is links to the current form.

Once a valid request is received, the Act gives the NDIA 90 days to decide to vary the plan, reassess it, or not reassess it (section 48(3)). If it makes no decision in that time, it is taken to have decided not to reassess, and that deemed decision is reviewed automatically.

What the NDIA looks at

For a current (old framework) plan, the NDIA prepares the new plan the same way it prepared the first one: it starts from the participant's statement of goals and aspirations, looks at relevant assessments and evidence, and decides which supports are reasonable and necessary. It also considers how well the current and previous plans worked, the participant's wishes about managing their own plan, and whether past funding was used in line with the plan. Evidence about what supports achieved, and what changed, carries more weight than a list of things the participant would like.

During any reassessment the NDIA can ask for information and reports, including asking the participant to undergo an assessment such as a functional capacity assessment and provide the report (section 50). It can finish the reassessment before every report arrives, but must give the participant a reasonable chance to provide them.

When you can ask for a reassessment (and when you can't)

Section 48A sets the conditions for a participant-requested reassessment. There must be a significant change to the participant's ongoing disability support needs, and it must come from one or both of these:

1. A change in functional capacity that is significant and ongoing, relates to a change in an existing impairment (or a new impairment that meets the access requirements), and has substantially reduced the person's ability to perform daily activities.
2. A change in personal or environmental circumstances: a significant and ongoing change in living arrangements, education arrangements, work arrangements, or the person's network of informal supports.

The NDIA can decide that a variation is enough even when you asked for a reassessment, because one of the decisions open to it under section 48(3) is to vary the plan instead.

Plan reassessment vs plan variation vs internal review

These three are easy to confuse because each can end with a changed plan. The difference is what is being looked at and why.

If you disagree with the outcome of a reassessment, the decision to approve the statement of participant supports in your new plan is a reviewable decision. You can ask for an internal review within 3 months of receiving the decision notice, and then go to the Administrative Review Tribunal if you are still not satisfied. A decision not to reassess your plan is also reviewable. The NDIA's how to ask for a change to your plan page explains which form to use for each kind of change.

A reassessment also sits alongside the participant's ongoing duty to tell the NDIA about a change of circumstances under section 51 of the Act. Telling the NDIA about a change is not the same as asking for a reassessment: the notification keeps the NDIA's records accurate, while the reassessment request asks it to rebuild the plan.

Recent and upcoming changes (2024–2027)

Reassessment rules have changed several times since the October 2024 amendments to the NDIS Act, and more changes are scheduled. The Department of Health, Disability and Ageing publishes a reform timeline with the dates.

Two changes matter most for reassessments in late 2026 and 2027:

• Tighter requested reassessments. The NDIS Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Act 2026 received Royal Assent on 20 August 2026, and parts of it started on 27 August 2026, including tighter criteria for unscheduled reassessments. The section 48A conditions above, the approved request form and the 90-day decision period are part of the Act as it now stands. A request that doesn't describe a significant and ongoing change, or isn't on the form with the required evidence, is unlikely to succeed.
• New framework plans. Participants will gradually move to new framework plans, starting from April 2027 according to the Department. Once the NDIA notifies a participant that they will have a new framework plan, their old framework plan can no longer be reassessed (section 49B); instead the NDIA prepares a new framework plan, which starts with a support needs assessment by an NDIA assessor. See the Department's new framework planning page for the latest.

How to prepare for a plan reassessment

Good evidence is what turns a reassessment into the right plan. The NDIA's decisions rest on what it can see about the participant's disability support needs, so the work happens in the weeks before the check-in, not on the day.

What providers can do

• Keep outcome-focused records. Progress notes and goal tracking that show what supports achieved, and what still isn't working, are often the most useful evidence a participant has.
• Write reports when asked. If the NDIA requests a report for a reassessment, therapy providers can claim it using the "NDIA requested report" claim type where the support item allows it; check the NDIS price guide for the current items.
• Flag changes early. If a participant's needs have grown, record the evidence (incidents, overnight support, assessments) and support them to raise it, rather than quietly delivering more support than the plan funds.
• Re-check service agreements after the new plan arrives. Budgets, funding periods and management type can all change, and a new plan may mean a new service agreement.

Common misunderstandings

• "My plan stops on the reassessment date." The NDIA must complete the reassessment before that date; the reassessment date is not a cliff where funding disappears. Unspent funding does not carry into a new plan, though.
• "A reassessment can only add funding." A new plan can increase, reduce or reshape funding. It is a fresh look at reasonable and necessary supports.
• "Anyone with consent can ask for one." Only the participant, their plan nominee or a child's representative can request a reassessment under section 48(2).
• "I should ask for a reassessment when I disagree with my plan." If you disagree with a decision, the right path is usually an internal review, which has a 3-month time limit.
• "Running out of money means my needs changed." Overspending is a budgeting problem unless the underlying support needs have changed. A budget tracker helps spot this early.